Paralyzed
by sumersprkl
Summary: Jinx gets injured, and is rescued by the Titans. Major CyJinx, minor BBRae and minor-er RobStar. My first fanfiction on this website! WE HAVE REACHED THE END! THE EPILOGUE IS UP, AND THIS STORY IS OVER! There may be a bonus chapter eventually, but until then, this is COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Jinx awoke to the smell of antiseptic and the sound of a heartbeat monitor. A hospital, not the worst place she had ever woken up. Jinx kept her eyes closed, giving no indication she was now conscious, and tried to remember how she'd ended up here. There had been a routine fight with the Titans, she knew that. She'd been delivering a smackdown on Starfire, but then what? Ah. She almost flinched when she remembered her careless mistake, but stopped herself from giving even a minute sign of life until she was better prepared. A little girl had wandered into their battle, nearly getting caught in the crossfire, distracting Jinx enough for Starfire to hit her with a particularly powerful starbolt. For a brief moment, Jinx wondered if the girl was okay, but then immediately put that foolish thought aside to focus on her current situation. Her team couldn't have taken her to a hospital; they were all blacklisted at nearly every facility in Jump City (which, ironically, was why they were being forced to steal to survive more and more often) so who had brought her here? Still not stirring, Jinx attempted to remember anything else about the incident. She knew she had been unconscious, but she thought she remembered hearing voices through the alternating red and black haze. They said things like "Oh, dude, she's hurt bad," "She won't survive in the prison infirmary," and "Oh, what are we to do? I did not wish to injure her in so much of the grave!" Jinx bit back a sneer; of course it was the Titans who had 'rescued' her, they were the only ones dumb enough to do so. She turned her attention to the room around her, still not opening her eyes. There was a band of cool metal around her wrist; she was most likely handcuffed to something. She couldn't hear a heartbeat other than her own, but knew better than to think the Teen Titans had left her unguarded. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard a book page turn with the slide of well-oiled metal. Of course. They'd left her with Cyborg.

Jinx opened her eyes slowly, as if she was just waking up, and began to pretend that she had no idea what was going on. Cyborg cut her off before she could start. "I've been monitoring your vital signs, you've been awake for seven point three minutes and I assume you aren't nearly as clueless as you were about to act," he said, not even looking up from the book in his hands. Jinx noticed the title: 'Advanced Car Mechanics for the Eccentric Driver'. Since Cyborg had already caught on, Jinx gave up on playing dumb.

"I realize I'm probably a prisoner here, but can I ask a few questions?" She said in her usual, slightly condescending purr. Cyborg marked his place in his book and took off a pair of glasses Jinx had only now noticed. "Since when do you need glasses?" She said, getting a bit off topic.

He responded, "They're specially made. They make it so that the display in my cybernetic eye disappears as long as I'm looking through the lenses. It's a lot easier to read when you don't have battery level warnings, security notifications, and text messages about cat videos sent by your slightly clueless but lovable alien friend constantly in your field of vision." That made sense to Jinx, so she moved on to the real questions.

"Okay, three more," she said.

"Shoot," Cyborg responded. Jinx attempted to count on her fingers, but found that she couldn't move her hands. That would be a setback.

"One, where am I? Two, how are the defenses? Three, how long would it take me to escape if I was fully healed?"

Cyborg chuckled. "One, Titans Tower infirmary. Two, the best on the planet. Three, your entire natural-born life." Jinx sighed.

"And I assume there are four other Titans in this tower, all ready to destroy me if I even attempt to get out of this bed?" Jinx questioned.

"Only two at the moment, Star managed to drag Robin to the 'Mall of Shopping'." Cyborg stopped and chuckled.

"What?" Jinx asked, trying to cross her arms defensively, but remembering she was immobile.

"Well, if I woke up in a strange hospital, my first questions would be 'Where am I', 'What happened to me', and 'How long have I been unconscious'. Or maybe even 'Why can't I move'?" Cyborg said, almost teasingly. She considered flipping him the bird, until she realized he was right.

"Why _can't_ I move?" She asked, suddenly frightened.

"You took a starbolt to the brain; you've been completely paralyzed for the past three months," Cyborg said, his voice taking on a more sympathetic tone.

"What?!" Jinx uncharacteristically spluttered. "But… but… the Hive! Didn't they come looking? I mean, I'm their teammate!" Cyborg gave her a look of pity and was about to say something, but was interrupted by his communicator.

He looked down at it to see Robin saying "Titans- Trouble in downtown! The Hive is robbing a bank for the third time this week." Robin said the last words tiredly. "They were so much easier to beat when they had Jinx instead of-"Cyborg severed the connection before Robin could say anything else.

Jinx just let out a soft "Oh." She attempted to roll over to hide her soon to be tear-stained face, but she was still paralyzed. She mentally cursed her old team, and the alien girl who did this to her, but most of all she cursed that little child who had run right in front of Starfire's blast. _If you'd just stayed put, we would have left. You could have gone back in the street for your stupid little bear when we were gone. Why did you have to_...? Jinx stopped talking to that little girl in her head, and instead spoke to herself. _Why did you have to try and save her?_


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Jinx woke up, Cyborg was gone. In his place was a very bored-looking Beast Boy laying upside-down in a chair. "Oh, you're awake!" Beast Boy said, scrambling to sit upright and ending up face-down on the floor. Under normal circumstances, Jinx would have laughed or made some sarcastic remark- No, scratch that, under normal circumstances she would have been the cause of his little tumble, but this time she just turned her face towards the wall, glad to see she could at least move her neck again. "So, uh…" Beast Boy said, righting himself in the chair. Suddenly his face brightened. "Hey, do you wannna hear some jokes?" He said a bit too excitedly. Actually, Jinx could think of no greater torture, and if it weren't for her paralysis she would have punched him in the head. With a brick. Or maybe even a sledgehammer. However, all she could muster was a little apathetic grunt, which Beast Boy mistakenly took for consent. "Okay, so, why didn't the skeleton cross the road?" Beast Boy waited for a response, but not getting one, he continued anyway. "He didn't have the guts!" Beast Boy guffawed loudly at his own joke, and continued despite having absolutely no reaction from his captive audience. This continued for nearly an hour, until Beast Boy's communicator beeped. "Welp, that's the end of my shift!" He said cheerily, and moved out the door, past Raven. He looked over his shoulder at the pink-haired supervillain and said "Oh, yeah, I'll have some new jokes next time!"

Raven looked over at Jinx and just said "I am so sorry," in a monotone before levitating over the floor and repeating three words over and over… "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Jinx didn't mind after the barrage of jokes piled on by the green imp, and besides, the chant was kind of calming. However, the quiet left a lot of time for thought. Mostly Jinx's mind wandered everywhere she didn't want it to: Who had replaced her at the Hive? Why had she been replaced? Did her teammates even know she was alive? She doubted it would make much difference, from how Robin sounded on Cyborg's communicator; her team was doing a lot better without her. And she knew that, as villains, they would keep whoever got them the most of what they wanted the quickest, without once looking back. There was no way she was ever going back to those & $! %)s. A time passed, Jinx didn't know or care how long, and when Raven's communicator beeped she silently left the room. Cyborg took her place.

"I brought you some food," he said. Normally Jinx would have responded with 'and how, exactly, am I supposed to eat it while my hands are not only paralyzed but also chained to this bedpost?' but what had happened so far was anything but normal. Cyborg sighed at her lack of response. "I'll feed it to you if you turn your head. I know you can, now, you were facing the other way on my last shift and I know you haven't talked once since I left."

"So?" Jinx managed to mumble into her pillow.

"So you obviously couldn't have asked anyone to turn your head!" Jinx remained motionless. "Come on," Cyborg pleaded. "I made sure Beast Boy didn't slip any tofu into it." Jinx was determined to refuse anything any of these people gave her, but her stomach's resolve was stronger than her own. She moved her head an inch towards where Cyborg was holding out a BLT. That was funny, Jinx was expecting gruel. Maybe even tofu gruel. But she had to admit, that sandwich did smell pretty good. She gave in and moved her head the rest of the way. The fact that Jinx's teeth were all filed into fangs to keep up with her 'bad girl' image helped her tear off a chunk of meat, vegetable, and bread despite the fact that she still couldn't move anything below her neck. As she swallowed, Jinx's eyes widened.

"That's really good!" She said, and then mentally smacked herself for giving a compliment to the enemy. Even though the enemy made a mean sandwich.

Cyborg smiled. "Thanks, made it myself." Jinx smiled back, and gave herself another mental smacking. _No! Bad Jinx! No matter how cute he is, he… Wait, what? _To hide her embarrassment about her own thoughts, Jinx leaned forward and took another bite of the sandwich. And another. Soon she had finished the entire thing. She leaned back, content, only to find Cyborg laughing at her.

"What?!" She asked impatiently.

"Uh… You have a bit of lettuce, stuck right there." Cyborg pointed to her cheek. Jinx flushed, and decided to employ her trademark strategy of teasing others to rid herself of her own shame.

"Well, why don't you just kiss it off?" She said in the most fake, innocent way she could pull off. Cyborg smirked.

"Maybe I will," he said, coming closer. Jinx was not prepared for this, in all her time on Earth her teasing strategy had never backfired! Jinx's face got redder and redder as Cyborg's got closer and closer, until she thought her brain would explode with panic and nerves and thoughts that just went _ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod _in a loop. That was when his communicator beeped, signaling the end of his shift. Cyborg pulled away quickly, used one finger of his robotic hand to knock off the offending piece of lettuce, and left the room. Jinx was relived, but somehow disappointed. _DISAPOINTED?! What is WRONG with me?! _Her mind continued racing as Robin entered with a newspaper. The leader of the Titans sat in a chair and completely ignored Jinx as he scanned the paper for any signs of trouble. It was a good thing for Jinx that he did, or he would clearly see from her flushed cheeks and wide eyes that something happened, something that probably shouldn't have. The Boy Wonder was oblivious.


	3. Chapter 3

The next few weeks passed, if not comfortably, at least tolerably for the young witch. She had tasted the cooking of every Titan, but decided she liked Cyborg's best. She learned to refuse anything concocted by Starfire. Raven saved her the embarrassment of sponge baths by using a magic cleaning spell, and although Jinx missed her trademark pointy hair, she had to agree that a ponytail was much more comfortable. Besides, the only Titan who even owned any hair gel was Robin, and she was _not _sharing with him. Cyborg managed to convince Robin to take off the pair of handcuffs attached to the bed. "It's not like she's goin' anywhere," Cyborg argued.

"Still," Robin told him, "she's a dangerous villain. For all we know, this could just be a plan to destroy us!" They were in another room, but Jinx could hear everything through the walls. They weren't exactly talking quietly.

Cyborg scoffed at Robin's comment. "You're tellin' me she faked being unconscious for three months for some kind of plot?"

Robin obviously knew the half-man, half-robot was right, but wasn't ready to admit it yet, so he tried a different tactic. "What if she tries to escape?"

Cyborg sighed, as if he was arguing with a child who wanted an excuse to skip school. "How, exactly, would she possibly escape? Her legs aren't exactly in the condition to be running away from anything, let alone five superheroes and a defense system engineered by me."

"Yeah, but… But what if her team comes back?!" Robin said, almost triumphantly, like he had found something Cyborg for sure couldn't argue with-

"Then they'd just cut off the handcuffs, wouldn't they?" And you could almost hear Robin's face fall. He spent ten more minutes going through useless "what if" scenarios before finally allowing Cyborg to take off the shackles. Jinx patiently, or perhaps not so patiently, waited for Raven's shift to end. When the empath's communicator beeped, Raven was glad to leave. The waves of impatience rolling off the pink-haired girl in the bed were getting to her even through her empathic shields. Cyborg entered the room. "Guess what I brought?" He said, holding up a key.

"The key to my cold, barren, empty heart?" Jinx guessed sarcastically.

"Close," Cyborg chuckled. "It's the key to those handcuffs. It took me forever to convince Robin, he may be named after a bird but he's stubborn as an… As a mule. Let's go with a mule," Jinx rolled her eyes.

"My hero." She said sarcastically. Cyborg smiled and walked to the bed.

"Now you gotta promise me you won't do anything crazy, all right?" He said, squinting playfully.

Jinx rolled her eyes again. "Cross my shriveled heart and hope you all die."

"That's not quite how it goes," Cyborg said, but unlocked the handcuffs anyway. Jinx immediately grabbed Cyborg's wrist and tried to pull him down, but the metal man didn't budge an inch. Instead he simply raised an eyebrow.

"Expecting that, huh?" Jinx said, almost sheepishly.

"I'd like to think I know you a little better than that by now," Cyborg responded dryly.

Jinx scoffed. "You don't know me at all. What's my favorite food?"

"Anything I make." Cyborg grinned. They both knew he had her there, but Jinx wouldn't admit it.

"Yeah, right. You wish." She lied.

"All right, fine, fine," Cyborg said. "I guess I won't give you any of the brownies I made-"

"NO!" Jinx jumped (well, as much as she could without moving her lower body) and grabbed Cyborg around the waist. He laughed.

"All right, fine. But you have to let go of me first," he responded. Jinx blushed and leaned back down on to the bed. Cyborg took a brownie and held it to Jinx's face. Jinx reached up to take it, but when she did, Cyborg pulled it away. Jinx tried to grab it again, but Cyborg moved away once more. Jinx put her hands down, and Cyborg moved the brownie back towards her. Jinx reached for it. "Hey, do I have to chain you back up?" Cyborg scolded. Jinx blushed when she realized he wanted to feed it to her, but covered it with an eye-roll and a giggle. She begrudgingly opened her mouth and allowed Cyborg to put the brownie in.

"Mmm," she sighed, letting her head fall back against the pillow, savoring the taste.

"So, how is it?" Cyborg questioned.

"Better than anything Starfire's ever cooked me," Jinx said, not willing to give a complement to someone who was just teasing her. Cyborg suddenly pulled all of Jinx's pillows out from under her head. "Hey!" Jinx exclaimed, but with a laugh. Cyborg laughed as well. Jinx attempted revenge, but then remembered the most depressing part of her paralysis: her powers were completely useless. She sighed. Cyborg noticed the immediate change in her demeanor and replaced the pillows.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Fine," Jinx responded, but her tone of voice gave her away.

"You want to talk about it?" Cyborg said.

"No. No I don't," Jinx snapped a little more harshly than she meant to. Cyborg shrugged it off and moved to the chair, giving her space without leaving her completely alone. Jinx turned away from him and bit back tears. The Titans hadn't been keeping her in the dark about her condition. No one even knew if she would walk again, let alone if she'd regain her powers, so there was absolutely nowhere for her to go. She couldn't stay in the Titans Tower infirmary and have Cyborg feed her brownies forever, but with her old team out of the question… Jinx just didn't know. There was no one out there who would take in someone like her: she was detested by the hero community, and with her months of absence, forgotten as a villain. With her pink hair and eyes, hiding out as a human wasn't an option either. There was no one, nowhere, for her; on Earth or anywhere else.


	4. Chapter 4

Jinx awoke to find Starfire leaning over her, much too close for Jinx's comfort. She let out a little shriek, which went unnoticed by the alien girl. "What are you doing?' Jinx asked after a few very uncomfortable moments.

"I wish to once again express the apologies, for not only the starbolt that has caused your injuries, but also for the dish of the food that I had prepared that caused you to 'throw the up-chuck'," Starfire said, not moving back.

"Star, it's either 'throw up' or 'upchuck'." _Wait, did I just call her 'Star'? I am getting far too friendly with these people! _Jinx thought, but continued speaking. "And you've already apologized at least fourteen times."

Starfire blinked. "Yes, but is it not an Earth custom to continue the apologizing until it is accepted?" Jinx sighed.

"Fine, I'll accept your apology if you promise not to make food for me anymore," Jinx said bluntly.

"Wondrous!" Starfire exclaimed, wrapping Jinx in a tight hug.

"Ow, ow, ow, you're crushing me," she squeezed out, despite having all air flow cut off by the arms wrapped around her midsection. Starfire let go, and Jinx couldn't help but feel a little happier seeing the overjoyed look in Starfire's eyes. _Ugh, these are not the people to be getting attached to, _Jinx reminded herself, but still gave up a small smile in return. Then she noticed the plate wrapped in plastic on a small table. "What's that?" She asked, slightly wary. Starfire looked to the table.

"Oh, that is a breakfast that Friend Cyborg has prepared! He also has the memory of the incident of vomiting."

"Cyborg, huh?" Jinx said, and reached for the plate. _If it's his cooking, it can't be bad. _She peeled back the plastic to reveal bacon, eggs, cinnamon toast, and a brownie. She smiled and started on the eggs, only mildly creeped out by Starfire watching her intently. Luckily, her communicator beeped, and Beast Boy entered.

"New friend Jinx, I am so glad to have the forgiveness! " Starfire exclaimed. "I will prepare for my next shift with much excitement!" Starfire floated out of the room.

"Wow, what'd you do to Star?" Beast Boy asked. "I haven't seen her _this_ happy since- Well, this morning, but you know, it's Starfire." Jinx snorted into her eggs. Beast Boy pumped his fist. "You laughed! One slightly disturbed female psychopath down, one to go!"

This time Jinx laughed out loud. "Raven's still not responding to your flirting, huh?" Beast Boy's face lost all color, then turned a deep purple. He scratched the back of his neck.

"That obvious, huh?" He said, sheepishly.

"To everyone except her," Jinx responded honestly. "But don't worry. Sometimes when she's in here meditating, we can hear you laughing across the tower. And whenever we do, she looks down, blushes, and smiles." Beast Boy's face flooded with color again.

"Really?" He squeaked. Jinx nodded solemnly, and went back to eating. Beast Boy flopped into the chair and went silent, a blush creeping over his face every once in a while, the list of jokes he prepared forgotten in his hand. _Jeez, if all it took was talking about Raven to shut him up, I would have done it forever ago, _Jinx thought. She finished her meal in companionable silence, difficult to do with Beast Boy, but apparently not impossible. When she picked up the brownie, she noticed a folded piece of paper underneath it. She unfolded the paper. Written on it were three words: "You okay? –Cyborg". Jinx blushed without realizing it, and kissed the paper. For once she didn't scold herself in her head. Beast Boy's shift ended and he wiggled his eyebrows at Raven as she passed through the door. Raven looked confused for a moment, but just shrugged it off. A few minutes later, Beast Boy's loud laugh echoed through the tower. With satisfaction, Jinx noted that Raven looked down, blushed, and smiled.

"I saw that," Jinx said.

"Saw what?" Raven said, managing to keep her voice emotionless, but giving herself away by replying to fast. Jinx raised an eyebrow and Raven looked away, still blushing. "Shut up," she muttered, and Jinx obliged. They both sat in near-silence; the only sounds were Raven's meditation chant and the occasional, extra-loud laugh from Beast Boy. Jinx rolled her eyes, she never should have told Beast Boy about Raven's secret reactions. Jinx turned over towards the wall, sighing. She was grateful to the Titans for rescuing her _Ugh, grateful. What am I doing, turning into a good guy?_ But she at least wished for a window. Or a television. Or something. She didn't even know what time it was, or how many days had passed since she had woken up in Titan's Tower. Was it winter? Was it summer? Was it raining, snowing, was there a fog rolling across the city? How many times had the bank been robbed without her? How many baddies had been put in prison, how many had escaped? Were there any new buildings, had any old ones been torn down? Had her favorite store in the mall closed down without her business, or, much more likely, had they actually gotten some sales without her stealing all of the merchandise? She let her mind wander over all these questions, but absolutely refused to think about her old team, those lying, cheating, no-good, not-even-good-in-a-bad-way little twerps who… Okay, maybe she thought about them a little bit. But mostly she wondered about things outside, and if the entire Titan's Tower was made out of windows, how she had possibly gotten stuck in the one room without a view. It must have been her bad luck.

She almost didn't notice when Raven left at the end of her shift, that was, until she heard Cyborg's voice saying "Hey, I've got a surprise for you!" Jinx rolled over.

"Is it a window?" she asked sarcastically, smiling a bit.

"Nope," Cyborg said, his human eye sparkling. "It's even better."


	5. Chapter 5

"A wheelchair?" Jinx asked, her voice a mix of disbelief and disdain.

"Not just a wheelchair," Cyborg responded. "Close your eyes." Jinx did as she was told, doubt still in her mind. Cyborg slipped something onto her finger. When she opened her eyes, her arm, though still pale, was closer to tan than ashy gray, and Cyborg looked- Jinx gasped. He looked human. As Cyborg handed her a mirror, she found that she looked human as well; her catlike pink eyes replaced with normal blue-green orbs, her pink hair now the color of chestnuts. She smiled in awe, and noticed her teeth were no longer fangs.

"Wow," she said. "This is amazing! But I still don't understand the wheelchair," She continued, looking down at the object in confusion.

"That's easy," Cyborg said. He suddenly lifted her up out of the bed and placed her onto the seat. "Now when I'm wheeling you through the park, people will just see a normal human couple." Jinx gasped, grinned, and grabbed Cyborg into a huge hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," she said. Cyborg blushed.

"It's not that big of a deal," he said, flustered.

"Yes, it is!" Jinx responded. "How long did it take you to convince the Boy Blunder to let you take me outside?!" Cyborg blushed again.

"Only about three hours… Maybe four. I kinda lost count," he admitted. Jinx grinned again, and then blushed when she realized she was still hugging him. She let go, and Cyborg wheeled her out of the room. Jinx glanced around. She'd never really seen much of the tower, except when the Hive broke in, and then there was never much time to look around. Jinx still subconsciously didn't quite believe Cyborg until the wheelchair was out in the open air. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, warm but not hot. Jinx stretched, relishing the warm sun. She watched the city go by as Cyborg wheeled her to the park. Jinx couldn't stop a wide grin spreading across her face when they arrived. As Cyborg wheeled her around the path, Jinx barely even noticed the glances her wheelchair was getting. She was a supervillain, minor glances of pity were nothing compared to the looks of pure terror she was used to invoking. She giggled when Cyborg sent her through a storm of bubbles provided by a group of children, and even more when an overly excited bulldog launched itself into her lap. After assuring the mortified owner it was okay, Jinx noticed a commotion. A group of older boys was waving around a teddy bear in front of a little girl, who was crying and trying to reach for it. Cyborg had left her to go get some ice cream from a cart that was too crowded to push her chair up to, so Jinx quickly figured out how to move the chair herself by grabbing the tops of the wheels.

She rolled up to the group and said "What's going on here?" The boys whirled around, shocked.

One of them spoke up. "We were just-"

Jinx interrupted. "Just torturing a little girl?"

"Well, uh-"

"Give the bear back."

"Wha- No!" The boy said. Then he got an evil glimmer in his eyes. "Fine. I'll give it back… If you can catch it!" He yelled, and threw the bear as hard as he could. Jinx reached up and snatched it easily out of the air. She looked at the boys as if they were the most pathetic things on Earth.

"Go back to your parents," Jinx snarled. "Maybe they can teach you some respect." The boys ran, and over her shoulder Jinx heard one of them saying "Dude, you just got served by a chick that can't even walk! That's just- Ow!" The other one had most likely punched him. Jinx rolled her eyes. When she turned back to the little girl and handed her the bear, the child jumped up and hugged her. Jinx was too shocked to do anything, until the girl grinned and ran away. It was only then that Jinx realized she had looked familiar… And so had the bear… _No, it couldn't be,_ Jinx thought. _Could it? _She shook off this thought and turned the wheelchair around to face Cyborg, who, from the look on he was giving her, had witnessed the entire exchange. "What?" She snapped. Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "That ice cream's going to melt all over you if you keep standing there like a moron." Cyborg laughed and handed her a strawberry cone. "Thanks," Jinx muttered. Cyborg laughed again. "What'd I do this time?!" Jinx demanded.

"Oh, nothing. It just seems like you've been thanking me a lot today," Cyborg said. Jinx shrugged.

"Hey, come here," she said, getting an idea. Cyborg leaned closer and Jinx smeared strawberry ice cream all over his face.

"Hey, not cool!" He yelped, glad he'd thought to bring some napkins from the ice cream vendor. Jinx stuck her tongue out at him.

"You missed a spot," she told him.

"Oh yeah? So did you," Cyborg responded. Before Jinx could ask what he meant, her face was covered in chocolate.

"It's cold!" She shrieked, laughing.

"That would be why it's called _ice _cream," Cyborg clarified. Jinx wiped the cream off of her forehead and flicked it at him, but he dodged, laughing.

"Ugh, my face is so sticky," Jinx whined.

"Hmm. Maybe I should kiss it off," Cyborg teased. She whacked him in the head with the rest of her cone. When they returned to Titan's Tower through the elevator, still shrieking with laughter and dripping with melted ice cream, Cyborg lifted Jinx out of the wheelchair and carried her into the infirmary.

"OOooo, looks like Cyborg's got a new crush," Beast Boy said.

Robin laughed. "Come on, Beast Boy, Cyborg's got better judgment than that."

"I don't know," Beast Boy responded, staring pointedly across the couch at Raven. "Sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants."


	6. Chapter 6

[AN: I was told I need to work on spacing, and that this is a little too cluttered to follow, so I'm trying to work on that in this chapter onward. PS: I'm totally grateful for reviews, both good and bad.]

"Friend Jinx, tell me again how you shoved the iced cream into the face of Friend Cyborg," Starfire said with a giggle.

"Come on Star, I already told you three times!" Jinx responded, with the same giggle. "I want to hear about you. What's up with you and _Robin_?" Starfire blushed at Jinx's words.

"Well, Robin is the leader, and he is very good at his job. However, do not tell anyone, but I care for him _very _much," Starfire giggled. Jinx decided that this 'girl talk' thing Starfire talked her into involved a lot of giggling. That didn't make it inherently bad, however. Suddenly Starfire gasped. "I have just had the most wondrous of ideas!" She exclaimed. "Perhaps Robin would allow me to accompany you to the mall of shopping!" Jinx smiled.

"That'd be awesome, but Robin almost had a panic attack about the park. How are you going to get him to let you take me to an enclosed space, surrounded by innocent people, with stuff I could potentially steal in literally every direction?" She asked, doubtful.

"You will simply promise not to do any of those things," Starfire responded, perhaps a bit too trusting. "And if your promises of good behavior do not convince him, then I will simply use _the face._" Jinx made the mistake of looking up as Starfire said those last two words, and was instantly blinded by such a look of pure, innocent sadness that she was forced to cover her eyes.

"You can have everything I own, just stop!" Jinx cried. Satisfied with her secret weapon, Starfire floated out of the room.

Only a moment later, Jinx heard Robin squawk "What? No way! It's far too dangerous!" Starfire responded that Jinx had promised not to do anything wrong, which, now that Jinx thought about it, she actually hadn't done. "The answer's still no, Star," Robin's voice stated again, softer this time.

"Then you leave me with no choice," Starfire countered.

"Wha- Wait, Star, no," Robin said, in a warning tone. "No, no, Star, stop," he continued, sounding progressively more and more panicked. "NO! NO, NOT THE FACE ANYTHING BUT THE- ALRIGHT, FINE!" He gave in. Jinx pumped her fist. "IF," Robin persisted, "You take Raven with you." Almost before Robin was done speaking, Raven flatly refused. However, Starfire wasn't willing to give in.

Next, Jinx heard Raven's voice saying "Star, you know the face doesn't work on me. No, don't come closer, that- Just because you're floating upside down won't make it work, Star. You- Hey, where is that sad music coming from? Wait, are you carrying around a stereo?! No, Star, really, quit it. It's not going to- How did you even get your eyes so big?! Alright, fine! I'll go, just stop! And we're going by the bookstore," she finally conceded. Then Raven said "Ow, ow, ow, you're crushing me," and Jinx immediately knew she had been caught in one of Starfire's signature death hugs. Jinx rolled her eyes.

The walk to the mall was pleasant, except for Raven complaining the whole way about not being able to simply fly there. Of course, if they were caught in the air, it would blow their disguises, and since everyone knew there were only two female superheroes in Jump City, it would raise the question of who their new friend was. The Titans weren't quite prepared to let the entire city know they were harboring a supervillain. However, it didn't take long to get to the shiny, "new" building (the mall was always new, no matter how long it stood, with all the repair work done as supervillains destroyed different stores). "Ooo," Starfire squealed. "Where should we begin the shopping?" She floated upwards in her excitement.

"Hey, balloon-girl, feet on the ground," Jinx said, from where her wheelchair was tilting dangerously, with the alien girl still holding the handles.

"The bookstore," Raven responded dryly, as if Starfire had forgotten her promise. The empath walked through the entrance and towards the bookstore, but before she reached it, an explosion rocked the building. The Titan's hero instincts kicked in immediately. Starfire shoved the wheelchair containing Jinx into a store that had been emptied of fleeing civilians, and both she and Raven threw off their disguise rings. The smoke cleared, revealing… Jinx gasped. It was the Hive, minus one vital (or so Jinx had thought) member. In her place stood Red X. A surge of anger rocked through Jinx's paralyzed body as she watched the fighting. Raven immediately pulled out her communicator, calling for backup, but with Titan's Tower halfway across the city, the two girls were easily overwhelmed. Her old team members and their new friend picked up the stolen goods, about to make a hasty escape while the Titans were unable to follow. Suddenly, the anger was too much for Jinx to bear. She threw off her disguise ring and rolled her wheelchair into the middle of the fray. A bolt of pink electricity hit Gizmo, then See-More, then Billy Numerous, all before they knew what hit them. Mammoth whipped around in time to see his bolt to the face coming, but not soon enough to dodge. Jinx saved Red X for last.

"So, you think you can replace me?" She purred, her rage not affecting her tone of voice, but betraying itself in the bone-chilling look on her face. Red X tried to run, his mask doing little to hide his terror. Jinx simply laughed and caused a billboard to drop in front of him, blocking his escape. He turned to run the other way, and Jinx threw another obstacle in his path. This continued until Red X was trapped in a cage of debris. "Let's have some fun," Jinx said.


	7. Chapter 7

Raven came to first. She gasped as she witnessed the scene around her. "No!" She shouted at Jinx, who whipped around in her wheelchair, giving Red X enough time to slip out of her trap.

"You let him get away!" Jinx shrieked back, livid. Raven gulped.

"Look, I know what it's like to give in to anger like that. It feels good when you're in it, but all it does is damage," she coaxed, panic edging in to her voice. Jinx looked back, pain in her eyes. "It doesn't matter. It's not worth it, _they're_ not worth it," Raven pressed. Jinx's resolve crumbled, and she put her head in her lap, whimpering. Raven stood, grimaced in pain, and walked over to the wheelchair in the middle of the ruins of the mall's west wing. When the remaining three Titans burst through the gaping hole in the mall's exterior, they were shocked to find four incapacitated villains, one hero just shaking off unconsciousness, and perhaps most surprisingly, a certain blue-cloaked Titan consoling a sniffling pink-haired girl in a wheelchair.

Cyborg was the first to remember how to use his vocal cords. "Uh, what happened?" He asked, picking his way past upturned bookshelves and shattered display cases, tripping over the mangled remains of a large gumball machine.

Raven turned towards him. "Jinx saved the day," she said matter-of-factly, with a casual shrug.

"What? No I didn't," Jinx protested. "I just got angry, and then…" She looked around. "I… I guess I just got angry at the right people. I didn't expect saving people to be so similar to hurting them," Jinx continued, sounding confused and thoughtful.

"Well, anyway," Robin said. "The cops are outside, so we can leave."

"Ugh, yeah, let's go home," Jinx sighed and stretched. As the Titans plus one headed back to the Tower, Jinx pondered why she had called it "home". Well, it didn't really matter, she supposed, as long as she could get back to her room and her bed- Wait, _her _room and _her _bed? This was starting to bother Jinx: First, she saved her former worst enemies from her former friends, and then she started becoming possessive of the aforementioned enemies and of their home. Jinx had a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't quite place. It was warm and fuzzy somehow, and nearly the opposite of what she was used to feeling. Shocked at herself, Jinx found that she didn't actually dislike this feeling.

She was startled out of her thoughts when Cyborg nudged her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Jinx smiled at him gratefully from the front seat of the T-Car. Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy had all elected to fly home; so the car only contained her, Cyborg, and Robin, who was not happy about being forced to sit in the back seat, and was only convinced to do so because it was much easier to lift Jinx into the front. Jinx thought that every Titan had a different way of getting around Robin's orders: Cyborg used logic and arguing, Starfire used _the face_, Raven simply did whatever she wanted without asking for permission, and Beast Boy begged and pestered until Robin gave in. If she were to become a Titan, Jinx would need her own strategy, probably something passive-aggressive involving slammed doors and pouting. _You know, if becoming a Titan was remotely possible, because it's not, _she reminded herself. When Titan's Tower came in to view, she indulged herself in a relieved smile and allowed herself to be carried up to the same room in the infirmary. Safe and warm, she slipped into a deep sleep. _Uncontrollable anger is really tiring_, she decided, right before she drifted off.

When Jinx awoke, Cyborg was watching over her. "I was wondering when you'd wake up," he grinned. "I guess rarely seeing the light of day throws off your internal timer." Jinx stuck her tongue out.

"You can't blame me for that; I don't even have a clock!" She gestured wildly to the blank walls around her. Cyborg laughed.

"Yeah, I guess that one's on us," he conceded.

"So, uh," Jinx said. "How long until your shift's over?"

Cyborg snorted. "Just started, you can't get rid of me that easily."

Jinx let out a relieved sigh. "Thank God, I don't think I could handle Bird Boy's silent treatment right now. He never talks! You know, he's never actually even had a conversation with me?" she admitted, with a blush she was fighting with all of her willpower. The blush only grew when her stomach growled loudly enough for Cyborg to hear. He chuckled.

"Wanna get out of the Tower and grab something to eat?" He suggested.

"Uh, is Robin going to be okay with that? Last time I was out of the Tower it didn't go so well," Jinx sighed.

"Pfft, wasn't your fault the Hive decided to blow up the mall, you were just there at the wrong time. Or the right time, depending on how you look at it; I heard you kicked their butts and got them arrested. How's that for revenge?" Cyborg said. Jinx smirked.

"Pretty good, actually," she admitted. "Not as good as throwing them off a building, but pretty good." Cyborg chuckled at her response, and although Jinx would never admit it, his laugh sent chills down her spine. The good kind, not the kind she got when she was reminded that See-More could look through walls. Before Jinx could protest, Cyborg had already put her in her wheelchair and pushed her quickly out of the room.

As he barreled past the main room and into the elevator he yelled "I'mtakingJinxforpizzabebackinlikeanhourIhavemycommunicatorifyouneedmebutdomeafavoranddon'tneedmebye!" Leaving a very confused Robin on the couch, the elevator doors shut on a hysterically giggling Cyborg and Jinx.

"You snuck me out!" Jinx laughed incredulously.

"Hey, I told Robin we were leaving," Cyborg replied, pretending to be offended. He kept up the act approximately twelve seconds until he dissolved into laughter.


	8. Chapter 8

Jinx bit off a huge chunk of pizza. Cyborg laughed. "I assume this means you like the food here?" He asked, not expecting a response, but he got one.

"Ss goo, bu I lie your coongk be-er," Jinx said, with her mouth still full of pizza.

"Mind repeating that?" Cyborg asked.

Jinx swallowed before speaking again. "I said it's good."

"And that second part?"

"What second part?" Jinx countered, batting her eyes innocently.

"The part where you said you liked my cooking!" Cyborg huffed.

"I don't remember that," Jinx said, continuing her angelic act. She stuffed another huge bite of pizza in her mouth before Cyborg could respond. He rolled his eyes and took a bite of his own slice.

"Geez, if you weren't so cute…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Cyborg responded, too quickly. Jinx raised an eyebrow, but continued eating without pressing him further. They continued idly chatting and laughing at each other across the table. They both wore disguise rings, so to anyone passing by, they just appeared to be a normal teenage couple out on a date. About twenty minutes later they had both finished their meals but were still unwilling to leave. Jinx was grinning madly at something Cyborg had said and Cyborg was grinning madly at Jinx's reaction when he suddenly leaned across the table, catching her lips mid-smile. He pulled away just as quickly, blushing. Jinx found her face heating as well. "Sorry, I, uh…" Cyborg gulped, trying to explain himself. "You, well, you had some pizza sauce on your lip and I… uh…"

Jinx smiled. "And you finally decided to kiss it off?" Cyborg blushed deeper, but nodded. They both leaned across the table again, blushing, but Cyborg's communicator beeped, and he pulled back suddenly.

"Uh, we'd better get you back to the Tower before Robin lays an egg," he said, still blushing.

Jinx giggled. "Yeah, that's probably for the best."

Robin was waiting for them as soon as the elevator doors opened. "Where have you been?" He asked, with arms crossed.

"Pizza," Cyborg responded casually. "I told you we were leaving." Robin squinted.

"And why haven't you been answering your communicator?" He asked. Cyborg looked down at the object in his hands.

"Oh, well, look at that, it's on 'silent except for emergencies' mode. I didn't notice," he said, pretending not to see Robin's angry glare. Jinx decided that it was not a good time to bring up the kiss. In fact, judging by the look on his face, there would never be a good time to bring up the kiss. Cyborg seemed to agree with this sentiment, judging by the fact that he didn't bring up the kiss. Oh god, Jinx couldn't stop thinking about the kiss. _It was just a kiss! _Jinx would've smacked herself on her forehead if Robin wasn't right there and still really angry.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her name in the conversation. Robin was saying "Beast Boy, can you watch Jinx while I have a _talk _with Cyborg?" Jinx considered offering to watch herself, 'kindly' reminding Robin that she was not a child, but realized she was still kind of a supervillain. Of course she'd need supervision, especially now that she'd gotten her powers back. So, she simply bit her tongue and allowed Beast Boy to escort her to the infirmary. The "grass stain", as Cyborg liked to refer to Beast Boy, seemed all too eager to get out of the tension-filled room. He didn't even try to bring out his arsenal of jokes; instead he sat quietly in the chair and awkwardly shuffled his feet. Jinx strained to make out the voices of the arguing parties, but they kept the volume down, which was a dead giveaway that Robin was really furious.

Jinx had waited for just about as long as she could stand when Cyborg finally entered to explain the situation. "So, uh," he started. "I'm not really allowed to take you anywhere by myself anymore, sorry about that," he continued, not noticing (or at least not bringing up) the look of disappointment on Jinx's face. "But I convinced the Bird Brain to let you have this," he offered. Cyborg handed her a laptop and charger. She opened it, and realized that it was connected to Wi-Fi.

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna trust me with the internet?" She asked sarcastically. "What if I used it to escape, or to blow up the planet or something?"

Cyborg shrugged. "I didn't think you wanted to escape anymore," he said, nonchalant, but to Jinx it was more than a small sentence. Somehow Cyborg had looked right through her and saw what she wasn't even admitting to herself, had seen that she truly didn't want to leave the tower and her new friends and… And oh god, that was corny. Jinx couldn't believe the sappy thoughts going through her head. Cyborg had turned to leave as soon as he had said the sentence that set Jinx's mind ablaze, and while she had been dealing with the storm of thoughts, the normal shifts had resumed. Robin sat in the chair with a newspaper, not talking, but occasionally glaring at the computer in Jinx's lap. She was guessing it was a hard-won argument for Cyborg to get her this. Jinx started snooping around the documents folders and found a word document that was titled with her name. Curious, she opened it. There was some text written in Wingdings. Jinx rolled her eyes and almost closed out, but impulsively decided to translate the words into a more readable form. A few clicks later, the words on the screen read "I had a great time, don't let Pigeon Toes get you down. –Cyborg." Jinx glanced at Robin discreetly and found that Cyborg was right; Robin did indeed have pigeon-toes. She nearly laughed out loud, but quickly changed it into a giggle when Robin looked up suspiciously. Jinx continued reading the text over and over, laughing again.


	9. Chapter 9

In the next few days, Tumblr became Jinx's best friend. Okay, well, maybe (and she couldn't even believe she was admitting this to herself) it was more like her fourth best friend: Starfire first then a tie between Raven and Beast Boy, and then Tumblr. Robin still didn't like her and Cyborg was definitely more than a friend. Well, Jinx hoped he was anyway. _Come to think of it, he hasn't said anything about it since and- _Jinx jumped and lost her train of thought when Beast Boy slammed into the room. Starfire jumped too, but when she did, she stayed in the air. Beast Boy threw himself into Starfire's vacated chair. "Beast Boy, it is only one game night," Starfire said, trying to console him.

"Yeah, you're right, it's only one game night. THAT I'M MISSING! I was FINALLY gonna beat Cyborg at Mega Monkeys," he wailed.

Starfire started to say something, but Jinx cut her off. "It's not going to work right now, Star. He's too far gone into self-pity," she told her. Starfire nodded and floated out of the room silently. Jinx closed her laptop and turned towards Beast Boy. "Okay, why are you really upset?" She asked.

Beast Boy just grumbled a short "Nothing".

Jinx rolled her eyes. "It's Raven, isn't it?"

"She FINALLY agreed to join in! I could be in there, right now, playing with Raven, but no, I have to watch you. Uh, no offence," he blurted.

Jinx raised her arms. "Pick me up, I'm about to kick some butt at whatever we're playing."

The first thing Robin said was "No". Jinx rolled her eyes and decided that "No" was Robin's favorite word.

"Why not?" She asked, still in Beast Boy's arms.

"Can I at least put her down?" Beast Boy panted.

Jinx looked offended. "Oh, pipe down and turn into a gorilla or something," she snapped. Beast Boy did.

Raven looked up. "If they're playing, can I leave?" She asked in her monotone.

Cyborg protested. "No way! If Jinx plays, we can finally have even teams without anyone sitting out!" Everyone, save for Robin and Raven, agreed. When Robin realized he was outnumbered, he gave in, but continued to hold a grudge for at least the next seven minutes. Raven just said "Whatever". Beast Boy turned back into a human to grin at Raven, accidentally dropping Jinx.

"Hey!" She grunted, but not in real anger. She hadn't landed that hard.

"Oops, sorry," Beast Boy said. He at least had the decency to look ashamed. Jinx simply rolled her eyes. _Hmm. Normally I would have destroyed him by now, _Jinx thought to herself. _I'm going soft. Next thing I know I'll be a hero. _Surprisingly, she didn't grimace at the prospect. _There's only one reason for that, _she sighed to herself, and let her eyes drift to Cyborg. She smiled as he stood, picked her up off of the floor, and set her down on the couch next to him. _Well, no denying it now. I love the metal goofball. _She shook her head when Cyborg tossed a piece of popcorn into the air and caught it in his mouth… Well, almost. He didn't even bother to pick it up off the floor.

"So, what are we playing?" Jinx asked, noticing that Beast Boy was about to attempt to outdo Cyborg's toss-and-catch routine and interrupting it before it became a competition.

"We were trying to figure out how to split up for head-to-head video game matches," Beast Boy explained.

"Oh, what game?" Jinx hid the glimmer in her eyes as Beast Boy named her _favorite _game. She put on her poker face. "How do you play?" She asked innocently. Beast Boy scoffed, and showed her where the buttons were.

"So, how about me against Jinx, Cyborg against Starfire, Robin against Raven?" Beast Boy asked, a devious smirk across his face. He had purposely pitted himself against the (as far as he knew) beginner. As the matches began, Robin won an easy victory against Raven, who wasn't really trying; Cyborg won against Starfire when she couldn't figure out how to make her player go forwards; and Jinx snuck up on Beast Boy in the final lap, his jaw dropping when he realized he had been beaten.

"Beginner's luck?" Jinx suggested, acting as confused as he was. Beast Boy crossed his arms and pouted. Cyborg explained how the next round would work: Each finalist would race against each other, and the one with the fastest average time would win. Jinx versus Robin was up first.

"I'll go easy on you," the fearless leader of the Titans told her. Jinx rolled her eyes. The race was over quickly, with Jinx speeding ahead and keeping her lead, finishing a full twelve seconds before Robin. Robin stared wide-eyed at the screen, flashing with Jinx's player standing under the word 'winner'.

Beast Boy called her out. "Dude, what the heck?! I thought you'd never played this before!" He jumped from his seat and stood up on the couch.

Jinx tilted her head. "Did I say that?" This stumped Beast Boy, and he fell back to the cushions.

"Well, you kinda implied it," he mumbled.

"Well, what I meant to imply was that at the Hive, I got so good at this game that I was banned from any further tournaments." Jinx relished the 'fish out of water' face Beast Boy was making as she watched Cyborg beat Robin with a time identical to her own. Robin knew he had been beaten. Badly. Unless both of the other teens suddenly forgot how to work a controller, there was no way there average scores would be lower than his. He admitted defeat.

Beast Boy, recovering quickly from the shock of being hustled by Jinx, started pretending he was an announcer from a sporting event. "So it all comes down to the final match, with resident champ Cyborg against newcomer Jinx. With the same time so far, neither side has the advantage."


	10. Chapter 10

The match began, with Beast Boy still acting as the announcer. "And they're off," he said, holding a pretend microphone to his face. "It's neck and neck around the first corner, at the straightaway it's Cy… No, it's Jinx… No, it's Cy! They're around the second corner, it's still too close to call, and the audience is on the edge of their seats!" As Beast Boy said this, he looked to the 'audience' to find that Raven and Robin had disappeared to the kitchen and that Starfire was hovering in the air above the couch. "Okay, so the crowd is not even technically in their seats! But still, it's an exciting match, folks, still tied coming around the final corner!" Jinx was getting a little desperate, she had never lost and she didn't want to start now. Both players had been leaning in the direction of the corners, as most game players do when they get in to the zone. Jinx made a show of leaning just a little too far, falling into Cyborg's lap, causing his concentration to break for just a fraction of a second. Beast Boy continued his running commentary. "And the winner is… Whoa, it's too close to call! We'll have to go to the judges for this one… And the winner is… JINX!" He yelled, just as the winner screen flashed, displaying her player. She cheered, raising her arms over her head and laughing. She smiled up at the defeated half-robot whose lap she was still lying in.

"Uh, I can't actually get up," she admitted. Cyborg gave a devilish smirk.

"Oh, you can't, can you?" He said, tossing his controller away. Jinx barely had time to register that remark before Cyborg was upon her, tickling mercilessly.

"Hey!" She gasped. "Not fair- I- I can't even- move my legs!" She choked out between laughing. "Titans?! Little help?!" She squirmed, trying to get out of his clutches, but it was impossible. He continued to tickle her until tears streamed down her cheeks. "I give, I give!" she shrieked. He stopped. "Geez, I didn't think heroes could be so ruthless," she wheezed, still in Cyborg's lap. Cyborg pulled her back up and set her back in her seat on the couch.

"Yeah, well. I let you win the tournament, so I had to win something," he said. Jinx smacked his metal arm.

"You did not let me win, jerk! It was tied the whole way through!"

"Beast Boy, while fanning yourself with your Monopoly money isn't technically against the rules, it's still very irritating," Raven informed her green teammate.

"You're just jealous, Rae. Hey, what do you say we get married, pool our financial resources?" He waggled his eyebrows across the table at Raven.

"Because that's definitely against the rules," Robin told him, glaring.

Jinx took her turn. "Go to jail. So, nothing new," she sighed. She'd been in and out of the jail square the entire game. Jinx was beginning to notice a parallel to real life. "How do you even win this game? When we played at the Hive, it was just whoever quit last wins. Villains do not have very good attention spans, especially when they're losing," she explained.

Cyborg scoffed. "Neither do heroes. We play 'whoever has the most money by the time someone gets bored wins'. The only reason we're still playing is because Raven doesn't want BB to do his victory dance." Raven looked over at Cyborg, irritated.

Robin suddenly groaned. "I'm done! You win, Beast Boy," he growled. Everyone except Raven and Beast Boy sighed in relief.

Beast Boy jumped out of his seat. "Yeah! I'm the CHAMP!" He yelled. He turned into a cat and started dancing on the table, then shifted into a worm, and did the worm. Jinx was beginning to see why Raven hated this 'victory dance'. Suddenly, Beast Boy changed back into himself and grabbed Raven by the collar. He pulled her to him and planted a kiss on her lips. He pulled back just as quickly when Raven's powers caused the lights to flicker and for several small objects to explode. Jinx dodged a shower of sparks raining from the ceiling.

"Watch it," she complained. "If the Tower catches on fire, I won't be able to escape on my own." Cyborg shrugged.

"I'd save you," he said. Jinx looked at him.

"Really? Okay, wait, if you could only save one, me or the Gamestation, what would you save?"

He shrugged again. "Probably still you. I'm a hero, remember?" Jinx looked confused.

"Yeah, and I'm a villain. Why would you save your enemy?"

Cyborg shrugged once more. "Well, for an enemy, you're kinda cute," he offered.

"Kinda?!" Jinx shrieked. "Oh, that's it, when I regain the use of my legs you are so dead," she told him, giggling. She fell over on to him again, laughing. "Hey, lean down," she told him. He did. Jinx wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to drag his head down. He just laughed. Jinx suddenly noticed the space, or rather, the lack of space between their faces. She tried to pull away, blushing, but Cyborg held her where she was. He seemed to forget that Robin was in the room for a moment, and he pulled her closer. They both closed their eyes as their lips touched. When they pulled apart, Jinx noticed that the Boy Wonder was completely speechless, his jaw hanging open.

Starfire giggled. "You were correct, Friend Jinx! Both Beast Boy and Cyborg have admitted their feelings to you and Raven before Robin admitted his to me! I owe you what we agreed," she said knowingly. If it was possible, Robin's jaw dropped further.

"You… You know?!" He spluttered.

"Oops," Starfire blushed. "I believe we need to have the talk." The alien dragged Robin away by the wrist.

"So, anyone up for Twister?" Cyborg asked, attempting to dispel the awkward atmosphere. Jinx rolled her eyes and kissed him. "No? Well, I like this too."


	11. Chapter 11

Jinx held tight to her boyfriend's arm. "Are you sure I can do this?" She asked seriously, peering up at him.

"You tell me," Cyborg answered. Jinx glanced down at the tape strip that marked her progress.

"Yeah, but you've been here the whole time," she whined.

Cyborg rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Jinx. I'll be right here. I'll catch you if you fall." He moved away, allowing Jinx to stand on her own. She wobbled, but didn't fall over.

"You know, I bet you could just make me a hover chair or something. That'd be really cool," Jinx said. Cyborg rolled his eyes and motioned for her to move forward. "Geez, no give? Not even for your favorite person in the world? Cold. That is just cold," she continued to complain, but stepped forward about an inch. "Hey, look at that. I think that's enough progress for one day, how about you? …No? Oh, fine." Jinx continued making shaky steps, but stumbled. Cyborg, true to his word, was there to catch her.

"Thirteen feet," he said. "That's a new record." Jinx crossed her arms.

"I am aware of that. I am also aware that you are going to make me do it again," she told him pointedly.

Cyborg kissed the top of her head. "Yep."

Two grueling hours later, Jinx stood up and walked from her own wheelchair to flop dramatically on the couch. "You people are slave drivers," she informed Raven, who simply smirked without looking up from her book. Jinx rolled over onto her back. "Cyborg? Can you get me some food? You know, since I was a good girl and walked all the way to the couch by myself?" She blinked up at him pleadingly. Cyborg rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen. "And not tofu!" Jinx added as an afterthought.

"I'm a slave driver, not a sadistic maniac," he responded.

"Thank you!" Jinx called after him with a smile. He just waved a hand in response. "He makes me food. I'm in love," she said to Raven, who smirked again.

"Even if he does make you walk?" She asked, still not tearing her eyes from the paper.

Jinx made a face. "Well, I guess. It does help that he's totally built… Literally." Raven snorted. Jinx smirked. "Wow. I've been here less than half a year and I've already made you laugh. How long did it take Beast Boy again?" This time, Raven let out a real laugh, causing the lights overhead to flicker.

Quickly composing herself, Raven answered. "I'm just not quite sure he understands that my sense of humor is embedded in sarcasm, insults, and pain," she admitted.

Jinx toyed with a smirk. "Does that mean he still hasn't?"

Raven just smiled and looked back down at her book. "Maybe."

"Maybe what, Rae?" Raven flinched, and the lights flickered again. Jinx rolled her eyes. The empath was still jumpy around the changeling ever since the incident at game night. Beast Boy and Robin stepped out of the elevator together, Beast Boy stopping to chat, Robin simply nodding at them on his way to the kitchen. Starfire had managed to convince him to open up towards Jinx. Starfire had managed to convince him to do whatever she wanted, actually. In fact, that was why Robin was headed to the kitchen, about to try to teach Starfire how to cook something, well, edible.

"Hey, Rob," Cyborg said, brushing past his leader with a roast beef sandwich. He placed the plate in front of Jinx.

"You are an angel," she told him seriously. He snorted and pushed her legs off the couch.

"I thought I was a slave driver," he responded, sitting in the space he had cleared. Jinx pretended to consider it.

"You're both," she decided, taking a bite of the sandwich. Cyborg snorted again.

"How does that work, exactly?" He asked, putting an arm around her.

"How should I know?" She responded, innocently looking into his eyes. He chuckled and kissed her forehead. Jinx grinned.

"Got something in your teeth there. I'll get it," Cyborg told her, leaning in to kiss her. _I could get used to this. Why'd I ever start stealing again? _Jinx thought to herself.

"Ugh, get a room," Beast Boy whined. Jinx and Cyborg separated slowly, each taking their time to come up with a proper retort. "Ooo, someone's jealous he can't kiss his girlfriend without blowing up the tower," Jinx teased. Raven's head snapped up from her book. Beast Boy blushed deeply, and then glanced at Raven. Her face clearly said she was waiting for his response. He gulped.

"I, uh… She's not technically my girlfriend?" He squeaked. Raven looked back down, clearly not satisfied, but at least pacified by his answer.

"Aww, wittle Beast Boy's scared to get in twouble wif his giwl-fwiend!" Cyborg called.

"She's not my girlfriend," Beast Boy growled. Raven's head rose slowly, analyzing the situation. Beast Boy didn't appear to notice.

Jinx saw the opportunity, and took it. "Oh, she isn't? But don't you want her to be?"

Beast Boy's face suddenly lost all color, and he spluttered. "Well- I- Uh. No?" Cyborg and Jinx hissed through their teeth. _Wrong answer_, Jinx thought to herself, shaking her head.

Raven closed her book slowly. "Oh, you don't?" She asked, her eyes full of something that reminded Jinx of dry ice: Colder than cold, but ready to burn you with only one touch.

Beast Boy's eyes widened in horror. "Uh. Yes. No. Maybe? Please don't kill me," he whimpered. Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, I won't. If you answer her question. Honestly," Raven hissed, her voice calm but dangerous. Beast Boy sighed, but not in relief. It seemed he was steeling himself for his next words.

"Yes. I would definitely like to be your boyfriend," he told her, his voice tripping over the last word. Raven strode over to him, took his face in her hand, and kissed him deeply.

"Get a room!" Cyborg and Jinx giggled.


	12. Chapter 12

Despite all the complaints Jinx put up about being forced to learn to walk again, she secretly loved it. She paced herself while in front of Cyborg, of course, but on her own time? She practiced non-stop. In fact, it was two-thirty in the morning, and she now stood at the starting line in a crouch; one leg bent ninety degrees at the knee, the other behind her, just touching the ground by a toe. Her fingertips brushed the rough, textured floor as she counted down from three. _Deep breath in. _Two. _Deep breath out. _One. _Deep breath in. _Go! And she did, not with the shaky, wobbly walk of a few weeks ago, but with a flat-out sprint that Kid Flash would have envied. She was _flying; _she could practically hear the roar of the crowd. When she reached the finish, she glanced at the stopwatch in her hand. 13 seconds. _Not bad. _

The sound of clapping filled the room. Jinx whirled around, ready to attack, remembering Robin's stories about Slade. She relaxed considerably when she realized it was Cyborg. "I knew you've been holding back on me," he told her. Jinx just smiled. "We should both probably get some sleep, though," he yawned.

"Yeah, probably should," she agreed. With a smirk, she got a running start and did a perfect handspring to where her boyfriend was standing. He rolled his eyes.

"Showoff," he said, poking her in the side good-naturedly. Jinx grinned mischievously and pretended to fall over into his arms.

"Uh oh," she sighed. "Guess you're gonna have to carry me to my room?" Cyborg tried to drop her, but Jinx was prepared. She had wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on tightly. She raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to get rid of me," she informed him.

"But why would I want to do that?" He asked in return, submitting to her wishes and carrying her to her room. Jinx smiled and nuzzled into his neck, silently swearing she was the luckiest girl on the planet.

Jinx blinked awake the next morning, not quite remembering where she was. Instead of the white ceiling and blinding lights of the infirmary, she was staring at a pink canopy over a queen-sized bed. Silently a grin spread across her face as she remembered the night before. "Close your eyes, I have a surprise for you," Cyborg had told her. By the time he'd gotten to it, she'd already dozed off. But looking around her now, she was almost glad she had. She now got to see her surprise in the light of morning, stained a rosy pink as it filtered through the curtains across a gigantic window.

"How did he manage to keep an entire construction project secret from me?" Jinx wondered, looking around at her brand-new room. She walked out of the door, glancing around, not quite sure where she was in the tower. Following the sound of voices, she made her way to the kitchen.

"But she's sworn off villainy," Cyborg was saying.

"You know that, I know that, but the city doesn't," Robin fired back. "If she doesn't prove herself to the citizens, she'll have to go back to jail."

Jinx calmly walked up to them. "I assume you're talking about me?" She said, grabbing a box of Beast Boy's sugared cereal and pouring it into Raven's favorite bowl.

"Yeah," Cyborg sighed. "If you don't prove to the citizens that you're trying to help them, well…" He trailed off with a shrug.

"So, what? I have to save the city with you guys a couple times?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder at them as she opened the fridge. Her hand automatically skipped past Beast Boy's soy milk without even having to look.

"Not exactly," Robin spoke up. Jinx poured the milk over her cereal and went back to the fridge. "We aren't allowed to take you on any missions. We're barely allowed to take you out in public. We aren't even allowed to leave you unsupervised," he explained as Jinx poured orange juice into Robin's handmade cup, a gift from Starfire.

She put the juice away as Cyborg spoke again. "We'll have to think of something else for you to do, something that benefits the city but doesn't actually require you to blow anything up. Can you think of anyth- Oh, I KNOW you are NOT about to put MY bacon in the MICROWAVE!" Jinx paused, her finger hovering about an inch from the start button.

"Well, if you're so worried about me desecrating your meat, get over here and make it yourself," Jinx told him. Cyborg stood up and walked around the counter, rescuing his precious bacon from the clutches of the white box of doom. Jinx grabbed her cereal bowl and took his vacated seat. She took a disgruntled bite. "There's nothing wrong with how I make bacon," she muttered, taking a swig of juice, grimacing at the sour taste. The cereal had a lot more sugar than she was expecting, and it coated her tongue, making perfectly good juice taste terrible. She pushed the cup aside. "So what kind of thing should I be doing? Like, community service or something?" Jinx asked, as the sound of bacon sizzling filled the kitchen.

"Sort of."

"Good description actually."

Jinx groaned. "Well, what is there to do around here besides picking up trash from underneath highways and rebuilding the prison wall every other day?" She shoved her bowl to the side and flopped her face unto the counter dramatically. Cyborg shoved her chair to the side slightly, moving another chair into the space he cleared. Jinx didn't even look up.

"You know, the prison thing isn't such a bad idea," Cyborg told her.

Jinx propped her head up on the counter. "What's the point? We're- _They're _just going to break back out tomorrow."

Robin nodded. "How did you guys even do that anyway?"


	13. Chapter 13

"Oh, get a notepad, you're about to be schooled. There's nothing to do in prison _except _think of all the ways out," Jinx informed Robin, turning to face him. "First off, there are _no _power neutralizers in _any _of the rooms. I mean, you can afford to put them in _every single cell_, but when it comes to the common rooms where there's _more than one villain_, pretty much anyone can blast their way out? How bad at planning can you be?!" Jinx was on a roll now. "Secondly, the cell bars. This is a _juvenile _prison, _for mutants, _and you don't expect anyone to be small enough to slip through them? And it's not just the bars either. Do you _know _how many times Mammoth hoisted Gizmo into the air vents?! And the guards!" She paused to roll her eyes. "I once knocked one of those morons out with nothing but my gymnastic skills and a paper plate." Robin looked curious as to how this was possible, but Jinx was too far into rant mode for him to ask. "And their weapons? Terrible. Gizmo once stole one to use to escape, but he had to rewire it to make it even _remotely _effective. And while we're on that topic, it should _not _be possible for a two-foot twerp to steal a weapon off a prison guard. I mean, sure, a blast from one of those things knocks out your superpowers for a while, but is that really gonna matter when there's an angry, seven-foot-two, 420 pound teenager with the nickname 'Mammoth' running at you?!"

"And oh my god, their 'outdoor security system'?" She put air quotes around the last three words. "Is _literally _just a searchlight and a fence. Some thickheaded kid runs fast enough at a wall and boom, the entire prison is free to run around Jump once more. Most villains use that dump as a freaking bed-and-breakfast! They check in, eat, sleep, and check back out, refreshed and ready to cause more destruction!" Jinx was now pacing the floor, punctuating her words with hand gestures. The entire team was now in the kitchen, watching her performance intently. She suddenly turned to them. "Okay, give me the name of a villain, and I'll tell you how they escape," she said, pointing to Beast Boy.

"Uh, Billy Numerous?"

"Leaves a copy of himself in his cell while the real him walks out the back. Next?" She pointed to Raven.

"Kitten?" She supplied.

Jinx scoffed. "Pays someone to break a window with her daddy's money. Next?"

"The X of Red?"

"_Gets _paid to break a window with Kitten's daddy's money. He just throws down a smoke bomb and they waltz out together, along with her boyfriend and anyone else who wants to come."

"Mammoth?"

"Walks right through the brick, have you _seen _the guy?! The mortar never has time to set, so it's not like it's hard for a living battering ram to crash through it. We used to make a game out of it: How many villains can you get through the hole before the entire wall collapses?"

"You?"

"Waited for the next prison break and followed them out. It was like waiting for a bus: If you miss the first one, there's another coming in an hour." She snorted. "The adult prison is just as bad. Even _Control Freak _can get out if he's gone long enough without television. _Mad Mod _once knocked a guard's lights out with one crotchety old man punch." She mimed a wimpy punch at Cyborg, complete with a fake coughing fit during which she leaned on his arm for support. "It's _pathetic_," she finished with a snarl. "I never understood why you Titans waited until we actually _broke into _something when it would be so much easier to just _stand outside _the prison and _wait _until we _broke out_! I mean, do you even _have _a way to _know _when a prison break is happening?!" Robin opened his mouth to answer, but stopped short as he pondered her question. Jinx scoffed and sat back down.

"If you're finished," Cyborg said. "Your bacon is getting cold." He gestured to a plate, clearly set in front of her chair mid-rant. She grabbed a piece and took a bite.

"Thanks," she sighed, shaking herself out of her irrational anger. "Anyway, after we broke out, we always had time to blow up the animal shelter, or the comic shop, or the electronic store to slow you guys down. By the time you actually caught up to us, we'd robbed fifteen stores. Twenty if you got caught in traffic," she informed them, grabbing another slice of bacon.

"Hey, maybe that's what you can do for your community service," Cyborg suggested.

Jinx blinked at him, confused. "What? Complain about the state of our prison systems?" Cyborg rolled his eyes.

"No, _improve _the state of our prison systems. Who better to know how to keep a prisoner in than a prisoner?" Jinx glared at him. "Sorry, former prisoner," he gulped. Jinx considered it as a smile spread across her face.

"You know, this could work. It counts as community service, it's not overly difficult, _and _it comes with petty revenge on my old 'friends'. I'm beginning to like this idea," Jinx admitted. Her signature, sadistic smirk spread slowly across her face.

"Uh, Jinx?" Cyborg asked carefully. "Are you okay, baby?" Jinx's signature, sadistic smirk softened into a sweet smile. She giggled with a blush.

"I'm sorry, did you just call me baby?" She asked, with a grin. A smile tugged at the corner of Cyborg's mouth. He walked over to Jinx and put his arms around her. "What, would you prefer sweetie? Or honey? Or angel?" He asked, punctuating every nickname with a kiss to her head.

"Definitely not angel," Jinx giggled, turning around in her chair. She was met with Robin and Beast Boy making puking noises behind Cyborg's back. "Oh, your girlfriends are jealous," she informed them.


	14. Chapter 14

Jinx frowned at the paper on her lap, trying to ignore the sounds of daily Tower life happening around her. She suddenly stood and, without a word, left the common room. She walked along the hallways, trying to retrace her steps from the morning. It was now late evening, and Jinx had been working non-stop on her plans. She still stared at them now, turning into her room. If she wasn't so absorbed in the paper in front of her, she would have been shocked she'd found it so easily. She flicked on the lights and looked up from the plans with a gasp. That morning she hadn't really looked around much. She now gasped in awe at the huge, ornate black crystal chandelier. Jinx hadn't even realized the ceilings were high enough to support such a piece. The walls, she realized, were covered in beautiful, tasteful black-and-pink wallpaper with a rose pattern. Clearly both Raven and Starfire had a hand in picking it out. Glancing around, her eyes caught on the window. It was bigger than she had originally realized, and as she moved the pink curtains aside, she found a black-velvet window seat both large and comfortable enough to sleep on. Although, if she was choosing what to sleep on, she'd definitely go for the huge canopy bed with the gauzy, pink curtains she could pull all the way around the mattress. She walked to a door in the back of the room and threw it open, finding a walk-in closet already stocked with all of her clothes. Thoughtful, but also embarrassing. She seriously hoped Cyborg had gotten someone female to transport some of her more sensitive articles. But then again… A smirk pulled at Jinx's face as she imagined a red-faced Cyborg going through her closet. The notion earned a chuckle. When she finished admiring the room around her, she sat on the window seat with her plans in hand. "Let's see," she said to herself, chewing the eraser of a pencil thoughtfully. Her plans had already addressed the air vent issue, but she was having a hard time with budgeting for power-cancellers. And who knew that high-grade steel bars would be so darn expensive?! It might actually be cheaper to buy extra-hyper-strength glass instead, the superpower-resistant kind the supervillains used to lock up the Titans. She used the laptop Cyborg had given her what seemed like forever ago to look up the cost of such an operation, and found it was much cheaper than thirteen-times-reinforced steel. Running some simple calculations, she found that it was well within reason to replace all of the cell doors with the stuff. She scribbled this down on the paper, along with the amount it would cost to replace all the windows. After selling off all of the old steel to scrapyards, there was more than enough room in the budget for power-cancellers in all public rooms.

"Whatca workin' on?" Jinx jumped at Cyborg's voice.

"Oh, just figuring the cost versus benefit of upgrading the guard's weapons. I don't even know if that should be a priority at this point, considering how easy it is to knock someone out and steal it off of 'em," Jinx said.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Wow, you're really thinkin' this out," he said, sounding impressed.

"Uh, yeah. It's gotta be good to impress everybody enough that they forgive me for everything. I just wish there was a way to test it, you know?" Suddenly her eyes lit up. "Hey, what if, after everything's set and ready to go, I go back to jail for a week and try to escape! If I can, then we come back and fix everything. If I can't, we know the system's good!"

Cyborg seemed less excited. "You're sure you're up for that?" He asked seriously.

"What, you think I can't handle it?" Jinx asked back, with a smirk. He raised an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Cy, I can handle one week in jail. It's not like I've been in and out of jail for nearly my entire life, and technically should be there now, is it?" She raised both eyebrows, staring at him seriously.

Cyborg chuckled. "I don't know if I can handle it, though," he pouted jokingly.

"What are you talking about?" Jinx asked, with another eye roll.

"A whole week without my angel!" He shouted, overdramatically flopping onto the window seat next to Jinx. She laughed in surprise.

"Still on the angel thing?! Your 'angel' is going back to jail for a week! Emphasis on the word 'back'," she told him, poking him on his metallic side. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her down on top of him. She giggled. "I'm trying to work," she said as seriously as possible while laughing.

"Yeah, but the longer it takes you to finish your plans, the longer it'll take you to leave," he pouted.

"Wow. Who knew the great and powerful Cyborg, second in command of the Teen Titans, builder of epic cars from scratch and parts was so needy?" Jinx remarked. He pretended to take offense, getting up and stalking towards the door. "No, wait," she called him back.

"What?" He asked.

"I need your help researching the cost of fences," she said.

Cyborg scoffed. "That's it; you've been working too hard. We're going out to dinner, no arguments," he said, picking her up off of the seat.

"No!" She shrieked. "I have very important figures to run involving the cost of various types of searchlights! And then there's grass versus turf for the prison yard, and where will I be tomorrow if I don't find the best brand of security camera?! Then there's the design of the place: do we want to go 'Gothic and Gargoyles' or 'Condescending Kindergarten'? Although if neither of those work, we could always use the standard 'Claustrophobic Concrete'." Cyborg simply rolled his eyes at her protests as he carried her over his shoulder down the hallway.


	15. Chapter 15

"Oh, come on, if you really wanted to get away, you would've done it already," Cyborg said.

"Pfft. You know me _way _too well. I may have to execute a memory-wipe if I want to continue this relationship," Jinx retorted, still hanging from Cyborg's back as he carried her through the common room, though she had adjusted her position so that she was holding onto his neck, piggy-back style. After the initial dramatics where Jinx had pleadingly reached back towards her laptop with pathetic cries of "There's still so much to do!" (Most of which were totally ignored by Cyborg) Jinx had been forced to 'reluctantly' agree to go to the dinner.

"Yo, anyone for dinner at a steakhouse that's _pretend _fancy but not fancy to the point where I'd actually be forced to make a reservation?" Cyborg called out to the two other 'couples' sitting on the couch. Robin and Starfire separated from a little makeout session that, judging by the state of their hair and clothes, had been going on a while, looking completely unashamed about their display. Raven and Beast Boy, however, looked up with simultaneous blushes on their faces, despite only being caught sitting slightly closer to each other than they usually would.

"_Steakhouse?!_" Beast Boy whined. "Dude, does the word 'vegetarian' even _register _in your brain?" Cyborg considered seriously for a moment.

"It did the first three hundred or so times I heard it. You know how when you're reading something your brain skips over the word 'the' because you've seen it so many times? It's kinda like that," he decided. Beast Boy groaned.

"If the captive party may make a suggestion?" Jinx piped up. Cyborg nodded his assent. "I'm kinda in the mood for pizza."

"All for pizza, say 'aye'," Cyborg said.

"Aye," Jinx agreed.

"Aye!" Beast Boy exclaimed, happy with anything not involving meat.

"Eyes!" Starfire attempted.

"Whatever." Raven sighed.

"I don't really feel like pizza-" Robin began to argue.

"There was an 'I' in that sentence!" Beast Boy interrupted gleefully.

"Pizza it is! I'll give you two ten minutes to fix… that," Cyborg said, gesturing towards Robin and Starfire's disheveled clothes and hair.

As the Titans plus one neared the doors of the pizza parlor, Beast Boy poked Raven with his elbow. "Hey Rae, wanna sit next to all of this?" He asked, pointing to himself.

"I don't know. Do you want to be sent to another dimension?" She asked in return, as they stepped inside.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Beast Boy exclaimed triumphantly. Raven rolled her eyes, but as they moved to their normal table, she slipped into the both next to the green changeling. Jinx raised an eyebrow, but Raven simply ignored her. Less than two minutes after they arrived, five large pizzas were placed on the table. Jinx gave Cyborg a look.

"How often do you guys come here?" She asked, as the Titans dug in. Cyborg glanced at the spread of food and shrugged. Jinx started reaching for a slice, but a small noise from Cyborg cut her off. Jinx instead reached for a different pizza. Cyborg made the sound again. Jinx squinted and reached for a different pizza. Cyborg gave an almost imperceptible nod. Grabbing a slice from the pizza specified, she mouthed 'What?' at Cyborg. He shoved a menu at her instead of responding, pointing to a section called "Titan's Specials". Jinx cringed when she saw that she had almost eaten "Starfire's Tamaranian" with ice cream, mint frosting, and mustard; and "Beast Boy's Vegetarian" with tofu and no cheese. Setting the menu on the table, she shot her boyfriend a look of gratitude. He raised an eyebrow in a 'what would you do without me?' look. Jinx stuck her tongue out at him and took another bite of pizza. When she finished her slice, she made sure to stare straight into Cyborg's eyes as she grabbed two slices of his precious all-meat delight. He gave her a glare, but didn't remark on it, instead continuing his conversation on the latest video game with Beast Boy. Jinx joined in as well, rolling her eyes at the slightly surprised expression on Beast Boy's face. After beating him so badly, she honestly couldn't figure out how he forgot that she could play.

"Oh, come on, we didn't go to the steakhouse! You got what you wanted for dinner, why can't we pick a _non_-vegan place for dessert?!"

"Dude, your _girlfriend _picked pizza! And _my _girlfriend wants to go with me to the vegan place for dessert! Right, Rae?"

"No."

"They have _tea-flavored non-dairy frozen yogurt_!"

"Fine."

"SEE?!"

Jinx watched the team argue with a look of utter boredom. It had been nearly ten minutes since the last slice of pizza had been eaten, and not an instant later, the next argument had begun. _How do these people live with each other?! _She thought, her head down on the table. Cyborg was violently pushing for ice cream and declared that 'none of that non-dairy snot will do the trick'. Starfire wanted cotton candy, and of course Robin went right along with her. Beast Boy, obviously, wanted the entire team to try the new, improved taste of fake milk. Jinx suddenly stood, grabbed Cyborg by the arm, and dragged him away from the table.

"Wait, where are we going?!" He asked, letting himself be strung along.

"Since none of you can agree on anything, we're splitting up for desert," she seethed. No one argued, and Jinx noticed the slightly confused looks on the faces of the Titans, excepting Cyborg. Apparently they weren't used to having to be scared of more than one sorceress. "And we're taking the T-car," Jinx continued, swinging the key around her finger. She fought back a smirk at the panicked look on Cyborg's face. Just because she was angry didn't mean she couldn't take pleasure in the shocked look on her boyfriend's face on the occasions that he forgot that she was a master thief.


	16. Chapter 16

Jinx took a deep breath to steady herself. She wasn't nervous. She was never nervous. She was just… Shaky. Cyborg, who was holding her hand, noticed. "You sure you want to do this?" He asked into her ear. She shot him a glare and put her hands on her hips.

"Of course I'm sure. I have never been unsure of anything ever. I am going to go in there, and I am going to be the most epic prison-designer-slash-tester on the planet. Got it?" She asked, silently thanking him for the chance to build her confident façade. Jinx's improved prison design had already been implemented, and from the looks of things, it was working very well. Of course, there was no real way to know until it was tested. Which is what Jinx was here to do. Which she was not nervous about. Nope, not nervous. Not at all. Not even if her old team was currently in detainment in the exact same prison she was about to spend a week in. _Bad Jinx! Happy, confident thoughts! _"Let's do this," she said, executing a triple handspring that brought her straight to the door and managing to turn around soon enough to see Cyborg roll his eyes. She aimed a smirk at him and leaned casually in the doorway. When he caught up, they walked through the prison doors hand in hand.

"You have to realize, we will not be treating you any differently from any other prisoner."

"And you have to realize that I will not be treating you any differently than any other prisoner would. So you may be punched in the face this w- Ow!" Jinx glared at Cyborg, who had elbowed her. The head guard of the prison was the same one as when she had actually been in prison, and she still hated Jinx with the same fury. Of course, the feeling was completely mutual. "I get it. No special treatment. I've been here before. I know what goes on. Thank you. Can we move on to the part where I get to be in prison instead of this He-" Cyborg gave Jinx a warning glare. "This board meeting," she said begrudgingly.

"Of course not. We still have to go through your strategy. For example, how will you deal with the other prisoners?" The board member seemed unaware of Jinx's impending explosion. Had Cyborg not been there, Jinx would have flopped her head onto the table and groaned. Instead, she gritted her teeth and tried to keep her voice level and polite.

"I believe we already went over this. I gain their trust and attempt to recruit them to help with my escape? And the Titans are on call to round up anyone who gets out with me," she informed the slightly clueless woman. Jinx was beginning to think that she liked the head guard better, or at least she did until (He? She?) opened her mouth again.

"But you have to realize-"

"UGH!" Jinx groaned, flopping her head onto the table. What? Just because she wasn't a villain anymore didn't mean she was a saint.

After being forced to apologize to both the board lady and the prison guard, Jinx was searched, starched, and ready to begin re-assimilation into the prison environment. She said goodbye to Cyborg with a long, lingering kiss that only became longer and more lingering at the warning cough from the prison warden, and allowed herself to be escorted into the lunchroom, which was currently being used for a multitude of card games. Almost subconsciously, she scanned the room for familiar faces. When she saw her old team, she briefly considered bolting right then and there before even making contact with another prisoner, but her brief hope was shattered when Gizmo caught her eyes. "Jinx!" He shouted across the crowded room. Jinx took a deep breath to summon her old, overconfident, sarcastic, supervillain self. Well, actually, everything but 'old' and 'supervillain' still applied, but that's beside the point.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Hive Five? Or is it four now? What was up with the whole 'leaving me for dead' thing?" She asked, strolling casually up to their table and leaning across the top of Mammoth's chair.

Gizmo rolled his eyes. "We thought you _were _dead. I mean, getting hit with a starbolt, not moving, and then disappearing for months? Seems like a pretty solid formula for 'dead'," he said. Jinx gave a noncommittal shrug. "And anyway, if you'dve just stayed where you were, that blast would've hit a little kid instead. That'dve distracted the snotmunchers for long enough to escape," he told her. Jinx swallowed the feeling of wrongness that that statement brought up and sat in the chair Mammoth stole for her out from under a smaller inmate.

"What are we playing?" She asked.

"BS. We're apparently not allowed to say the actual word," Gizmo replied, already dealing her in. He took two cards out of his hand and placed them on the pile. "Two fours."

"BS," Jinx called.

"What?!" Gizmo spluttered. "How could you possibly know that?! I looked at your hand and you don't even have _any-_" He trailed off as Jinx raised an eyebrow. "Heh. Well. Look at that, Jinx is still the champion of making us admit to stuff. Your turn, champ," he said, poking her with his elbow in an obvious attempt to distract the attention from himself. Jinx rolled her eyes, but didn't press the issue further. It wasn't like cheating was uncommon in these games.

She took four cards out of her hand. "Two fives," she said, placing the cards flat against each other so that it was impossible to tell where the edges were. Her former teammates looked suspicious, Billy Numerous squinting and attempting to measure the cards between his fingers, but no one said anything. Jinx smirked. Just as it always had been and always would be, there wasn't anyone alive who could call Jinx on her BS.


	17. Chapter 17

It was surprisingly easy for Jinx to reconcile, or at least pretend to reconcile, with her old team.  
>She couldn't really blame them for thinking she was dead. However, there were plenty of other things she could definitely blame them for, such as when Mammoth convinced a scrawny kid, named Adidas or something, that everybody was going to tackle the guards and run. Of course, when the kid tried, he was quickly overwhelmed and dragged off. Well, Jinx couldn't blame them <em>entirely <em>for that, the kid _had _been hitting on her nonstop and he _was _a total narcissist, but…

She could totally blame her old team for when Mad Mod tried to hypnotize the guards and accidentally hypnotized himself in the process. Billy Numerous made him pretend to be a chicken for half an hour. Well, of course, it _was _kind of his fault for getting himself hypnotized, but still, no old man deserved to be laughed at for _that _long, right?

But there was an incident that was _completely _their fault. Gizmo told Control Freak that Mad Mod said that he was a fat, worthless fanboy. See-More told Mad Mod that Control Freak called him a pathetic, weak old geezer. They then set up a betting ring for the resulting fight, which was _completely _wrong. Right? Even Jinx had to admit that seeing Control Freak claim the victory by sitting on his opponent was the most entertaining thing she'd ever seen behind the prison walls.

Jinx shook these thoughts out of her head. She had more important things to think about, such as her escape. Actually, she didn't have to think about it for very long. Before the evening was up, Gizmo informed her that a person with teleportation powers found a weak spot in between the power cancellers, and that he was going to transport anyone who was willing to pay outside of the prison, thus out of the range of the power cancellers, and then into Jump. Jinx waved her stack of winnings from the Control Freak versus Mad Mod match (What? It would look suspicious if she didn't bet, never mind the fact that she won over two hundred bucks) and in moments found herself in downtown Jump City. As the villains scattered, Jinx found a more hidden area and flipped open the communicator Robin had entrusted her with. "I'm out, teleporter dude's out, Kitten and friends are out, and Hive's out. I suggest you get your butts downtown," she said without preamble. With her warning, only about two hours elapsed until all the escapees were rounded up, including a staged arrest for Jinx. Jinx, of course, was the reason it had taken so long. When the Titans found her in hiding, her response was "What? I'm supposed to try my hardest to escape. You really didn't think the escape stopped as soon as you got out the doors, did you?"

Jinx spent the rest of the night in her cell, scribbling notes on the optimal placement of power cancellers to prevent another incident like that. The next morning, she and all the other prisoners were marched out into the prison yard for what apparently qualified as 'exercise'. Jinx stared critically at what passed for a fence around the track they were walking around, and then attempted to break a wire. The link snapped easily. She was preparing to break another, but a shout of "Keep moving!" from the guards stopped her. On her next lap around, Jinx noticed that more of the links around the area were snapped, resulting in a small hole. She watched the three inmates in front of her each break one more small piece of chain link, none stopping for long enough to cause suspicion. Jinx snapped another link as she passed, as did the prisoner behind her, and the one behind them. By the third lap, the hole was almost big enough for someone as small as Gizmo to fit through.

Almost.

And of course, the kid had to try.

It really was his own fault that he got stuck.

Jinx pulled on Gizmo's leg, trying to dislodge him before gaining the attention of the guards, which was not helped by the fact that Gizmo was squirming and screeching. Mammoth stood on the other side, pulling as well, while See-More kept watch and Billy Numerous attempted to keep people from stopping to see (and laugh at) what was going on. "Would you- Ow- Stop _moving_?!" Jinx hissed, not doing anything to calm Gizmo's hysterics. Jinx rolled her eyes and tugged harder, muttering "I swear to god, you are the _only _'boy genius' dumb enough to get stuck in a _hole. _I _cannot believe _I _ever _chose to associate with you."

Luckily, no one noticed her little slip of past tense. See-More was too busy running up and whispering "Guards!" Jinx immediately released her hold on Gizmo's leg and continued walking, as if she hadn't been involved in the little scene in the first place. Mammoth, See-More, and Billy Numerous followed, leaving Gizmo where he was and pretending not to hear his desperate cries of "Guys! Wait up! Where are you going?! Don't leave me!"

Gizmo was herded back in during lunch, sporting extra restraints and a fair number of bandages. "Alright!" He snapped at the guard who was shoving him forward. Jinx barely looked up from her food as Gizmo sat down at their table, crossing his arms and glaring at his teammates. Jinx swallowed her bite of food slowly, pretending to savor the taste, before turning to beam down at him with a happy grin.

"Creamed corn?" She asked cheerfully, pushing her tray across the table towards him.

"I hate you all," Gizmo muttered in return, grabbing his own food.

"The feeling's mutual. Pass the salt?" Gizmo just looked at her incredulously. "Fine," Jinx huffed, reaching across him to pick up the saltshaker herself, purposely shoving his food aside in the process. "Not like I need you people anyway."


	18. Chapter 18

Only about half an hour later, Jinx snorted in distaste at the incompetence of the entire prison staff. "_Really_?" She muttered, stepping over a snoring guard on the way to the door. "Cause _one _little distraction and _no one _notices you sneaking into the staff room. And honestly, how did these people _get _this job without training on the taste of different _sleeping powders_?" She kicked aside an unconscious secretary, who had no reaction except to grunt and roll over. A quick search of the office revealed the door code. "_Come on_. You have it written down. This is a _maximum security prison _and you _write down _the door code on a _sticky note_?! And there are some _serious _scheduling problems if _every single employee _drinks out of the staff coffee pot within an _hour_. In the _afternoon_!" Jinx continued her tirade as she punched the exit code into the door. It swung open, and she gestured down the hallway to her teammates. _EX-teammates, _she corrected herself. Jinx walked out the door, the Hive following. After puzzling over it, Jinx had decided that there wasn't a non-suspicious way to keep them out of her escape attempt, so she was forced to break them out with her. Although, when Jinx had planned this, she had only hoped the drug she had snuck in after her first escape would cause enough confusion for her to slip away, but _no_, the entire guard staff were big enough caffeine addicts that they were all out like a light. The Hive trailed after Jinx, not bothering to close the door after them.

"Where should we hit first?" Gizmo spoke up. Jinx looked confused.

"What?" She asked.

"You know, the Hive Five, together again, and out of prison? This requires a reunion celebration! We should hit the mall," he clarified. Jinx raised an eyebrow.

"What about Red X?" She said dryly.

Gizmo rolled his eyes. "He was terrible. Thought he was better than everyone, never cleaned up after himself, and then he had the nerve to just leave us on the ground and let us get caught by the Titans. I mean, we're evil, but at least we don't just abandon one of our own!" Jinx's lip curled. Honestly, that description sounded a _lot _like four hypocritical boys that she could think of.

"Oh, is that all?" She asked lightly, not letting her thoughts show on her face. None of them noticed.

"Well, come on then! We've got things to do, places to rob! ONWARDS!" Gizmo shouted, from his newfound post on Mammoth's shoulders. At the boy's command, the group started towards the mall, assuming that Jinx would follow. And normally, Jinx _would_ follow. She would blindly steal, cheat, and lie along with the rest of them. She'd be leading the charge, probably following Gizmo's lead and forcing See-More to carry her on his shoulders, initiating a race, ready to blow up the next store.

At least, the old Jinx would. It hit her all at once how different everything was now, the realization stopping her in her tracks. She yelled to the people in front of her that she would catch up, and ducked into an alleyway. Pulling out her communicator, she called the Titans. Her warning in place, she sat still for a moment, contemplating the 'new' Jinx. She knew she could never go back to the life she held before. Jinx pushed herself off the wall suddenly, walking quickly to catch up with the people she used to regard as her only friends. It wasn't friendship, though, that had always held their little group together. It was mutual convenience, a group only shoved together because they were the best at being the worst. Everyone in their little 'team' had understood that any member would dump them for bigger and better things at a moment's notice. Well, Jinx had found her bigger and better thing, and she was going to take it. Grinning like a moron, she pretended to join her old team in battle. To someone who didn't know her, the look on her face could be mistaken for her old, malicious expression. When Cyborg caught her eyes and threw a watered-down blast that was just for show, he simply smiled back.

Back in her cell that night, after all the prisoners who noticed the open door and ran for it were gathered up and shoved back into the prison, Jinx wrote a long letter to the head of the prison systems outlining the necessity for extensive training programs for all employees. She fell asleep halfway through a sentence, and jolted awake the next morning to the prison-wide wake-up call. She sneered. That was something she was looking forward to living without. Jinx rolled over and continued to sleep, waiting for the ten minutes she knew she had before the guards started checking cells. She jolted awake once more at a loud banging on her cell door, and slowly moved her head to glare at the guard outside it. A boy who couldn't be much older than she was, and about the same size, sneered back at her through the glass. Jinx slowly sat up and stretched, taking her time, and padded to the door, head held high and with her pride intact. "Hurry up, sunshine, I don't have all day. There are plenty more attractive females I could be spending my time with," the guard shouted at her. Jinx didn't react, simply walking calmly out of the cell. She turned to face the guard and smiled, the expression not reaching her eyes.

"Has anyone ever told you that it's a bad idea to antagonize the prisoners?" She asked. Then she punched him in the face. The guard went down in an instant, and Jinx examined her knuckles, noting with satisfaction that there wasn't even a drop of blood soiling them. _And I thought I was out of practice, _she thought, shaking her head fondly and dragging the guard into the vacated cell.


	19. Chapter 19

Ten minutes and one outfit swap later, Jinx walked confidently down the hallway in her borrowed uniform, her pink hair tucked into the guard's cap. As she passed a group of guards, she nodded to them, pretending to have somewhere to be. _Rule number one. Act like you own the place, everyone assumes that you do, _she thought, smiling at the secretary as she scanned her prison ID. The door opened easily, and as she walked out, she even threw in a "See you tomorrow, Janice" for good measure. Rolling her eyes, (Honestly, no one noticed that she wasn't male? Really?) Jinx wandered around a bit outside, and then stepped into an ice cream parlor. She ordered a strawberry cone and sat in a both angled towards a television. The news was playing. By the time Jinx had finished her cone, they were reporting her prison break. She snorted in amusement at the footage of the guard, apparently named Kevin, tied up with a bed sheet and wearing nothing but boxers. When the segment was over, Jinx licked her fingers of the remaining ice cream residue, and walked back outside. The Titans were waiting for her. "I knew that grandma was on to me," she sighed, shaking her head. "Well, you've got me. Let's go back to prison. I got my ice cream, I'm good." She held her wrists out to the superheroes in front of her. Cyborg rolled his eyes and put a pair of handcuffs on her.

The full, updated six-o-clock report was on during the prison's designated one hour of television. The entire cafeteria rolled with laughter at her 'arrest'. Gizmo, gasping, turned to her. "You really broke out for _ice cream_?" He snorted. Jinx looked scandalized.

"Like you wouldn't," she retorted.

"Well, not for ice cream, but for some decent pizza…" Gizmo held up a slice of square cardboard-like substance with toppings that immediately slipped off and onto the tray, splattering anyone within the splash zone. Jinx glared at him and grabbed a napkin, using it to wipe the tomato sauce off of her face. She reached over and stole Gizmo's cookie in retaliation. He lunged for it, but Jinx already had it in her mouth and a smug look on her face, especially when she saw that Gizmo had landed on his own pile of pizza toppings. He pushed himself back up and glared at Jinx, reaching over for a napkin. She grinned at him, with what was left of the cookie still in her teeth. Gizmo glared for a little while longer, and then grabbed See-More's dessert from his tray. See-More spluttered and grabbed for Billy's, who reached out towards Mammoth's tray but immediately thought better of it when the behemoth of a teenager bared his teeth threateningly. However, while Mammoth's attention was elsewhere, a pale, thin arm flashed out and beat them both to the confection.

"Thanks," Jinx said cheerfully. Mammoth looked back at his tray with widened eyes, then up to Jinx with the same expression. _Oh, how I enjoy it when people make that surprised, fish-eyed look, _Jinx thought to herself, with a little, fond shake of her head.

By the next morning, the boundary between the outside track and the outside world had been rebuilt stronger than before. Honestly, Jinx didn't know if it even qualified as 'outside' anymore, with the large, stone walls surrounding it. She found it to be far too high to climb, unfortunately. But perhaps, if she had some help? "Oh, boys!" Jinx called suddenly. "Which one of you is the strongest?" Of course, at her question, a large group of male inmates gathered demanding that they were. Before the chaos could completely dissolve into fistfights and wrestling matches, however, Jinx let out a loud whistle, effectively stopping everyone in their tracks. "I know how to find out," she told them, a devious smirk on her face. "It's a lifting contest of sorts. Mammoth, do you think you could lift him," she gestured to a random person in the crowd, "On your shoulders?" Mammoth snorted, as if the comment was an insult to his masculinity. He easily lifted the (now terrified) prisoner onto his shoulders. Jinx pretended to look impressed. "And do you," she said, now talking to the person on Mammoth's shoulders. "Think you could hold him?"

A few minutes later, the stack of people was almost level with the top of the wall. The less… muscularly inclined and the more… large-boned had been dispatched to keep the guards from noticing the commotion. Jinx looked at Mammoth, still not even looking exerted from the weight he was holding. The inmate directly above him? Not so much. "Just one more person," Jinx promised. She began climbing the stack. When she reached the top, instead of trying to lift up another person, she stood and jumped to the top of the wall. "Later, boys," she purred, before jumping off of the wall, executing a perfect backflip, and landing on her feet on an abandoned mattress in the alley below. For a few seconds, the entire prison was stunned. Then it all went crazy. From the commotion, Jinx learned that she had inspired some copycats.

In a minute, Gizmo had clawed his way to the top of the human ladder, yelling "Women and children first!" as he fell face-down on the mattress. "Ow," he muttered, and then quickly rolled over as Kitten appeared on top of the wall, kicking other prisoners out of the way with the high-heeled shoes that she clearly wasn't allowed to have. Jinx snorted when Kitten came _thisclose _to landing directly on top of Gizmo. More and more prisoners jumped down into the alley before the guards showed up. Suddenly, an entire chain of people started its way into the alley as the entire human ladder pulled itself up and over the wall, ending with quite a lot of bruises, especially the poor soul that Mammoth landed on top of. Then the Titans arrived.


	20. Chapter 20

Jinx rolled her eyes as the villains scattered, no one listening to the cries of "Wait! They're outnumbered! If we work together we can beat them!" From across the alley, Jinx heard Cyborg sigh. "You know, I'm starting to think this whole prison thing is more trouble than it's worth," he muttered.

"You're telling me," Jinx retorted. Cyborg's eyes lit up when he saw her. The entire alley was empty of villains, so it was safe for him to sweep her into a quick hug.

"How you holdin' up?" He asked. Jinx grinned.

"Aside from the terrible prison food and being forced to work with goons? Perfectly." He grinned back at her response, and planted her with a quick kiss. After a few seconds of bliss where each party completely forgot that they were standing in a dirty back alley, they parted. Jinx sighed. "Well, time for me to go back to prison," she said.

Cyborg sighed too. "Yeah, I guess. Hey, keep breaking out, okay? It gives me an excuse to see you," he told her, before putting her in handcuffs and leading her out of the alley. A movement in said alley caught Jinx's eye for a moment, but she quickly dismissed it.

She shouldn't have dismissed it. That was only one of the thoughts whirling around Jinx's panicking brain. "You, uh, saw me with Cyborg? Like, when he arrested me?" She asked, even though she knew it was futile. Gizmo had cornered her after punishments were doled out for escaping again, and he wasn't going to give up that easily. He rolled his eyes.

"Come _on_, Jinx. We both know I'm not _that s_tupid," he sighed.

"Beg to differ," Jinx mumbled under her breath. He just blinked at her slowly, one eyebrow raised slightly. Jinx sighed. "Okay, no, you're not. Unfortunately for me. Why couldn't it've been _Mammoth _who caught me?" She asked, balefully. After forcing herself to calm down and _think _for a minute, she replayed the alley moment in her mind and found that no one had actually mentioned that she had gone to the side of the light. So Gizmo only knew that she was guilty of (well, aside from armed robbery, arson, resisting arrest, assault, etc.) having a secret relationship with Cyborg.

Actually, that was a pretty big thing.

"Look, Jinx, it's okay. I'm not mad," Gizmo told her. It didn't surprise Jinx that Gizmo wasn't surprised. It was actually quite common for supervillains to fall for superheroes, especially if the supervillain happened to be female. It was just _highly _uncommon for these relationships to work out. Unless, of course, the supervillain decided to switch over to the side of good, but then they usually ended up sacrificing themselves for the male hero. _Not the right thoughts for this conversation, _Jinx scolded herself.

"I know you're not mad. You're just going to tell me to be careful, don't develop any emotional attachments, and remind me that if something goes wrong the right thing to do is push him in front of a bus, but above all else, don't switch sides. I got it," she snapped.

Gizmo raised his hands and took a step back. "I know, I know, you can take care of yourself. I got that. I just want you to know that we're not gonna stop trying to kill his friends. We'll let Cyborg live if you wanna keep him, but the rest of 'em are fair game. Cool?" Jinx almost laughed at this unexpected, backwards little show of support.

"Sure, cool," she grinned, setting a hand on top of his head, which he immediately shook off, grumbling.

"The one time I try to be nice," he muttered, rubbing his bald head as if to wipe off the touch. Jinx just grinned and placed her elbow back on it, leaning on him, prompting an indignant squawk.

Of course, after her four (or five, depending on whether failed ones count) little incidents, security around Jinx's cell tightened a bit. Now, she was never left alone without a guard; except, of course, when the doddering old fool decided he could spare ten minutes for a 'coffee break'. Jinx knew that there had to be more booze than coffee in his coffee. She could smell it through the glass wall of her cell, despite the fact that she never got close enough to it for that to be possible. However disgusted she was by his drunkenness, Jinx had to admit it afforded her some opportunities that wouldn't fool anyone remotely sober.

Which, of course, was how she found herself hanging from the ceiling of her cell, confident that the slight differences in ceiling height would shield her from view from the outside. And hopefully, from sixty-year-old men with alcohol addictions. Surely enough, when he returned, he only glanced into the cell for a moment. This was a factor Jinx hadn't considered. She had expected him to be dumb enough to realize she was 'gone' and run off looking for her, leaving the door open on his way out, but what if he was actually dumb enough to not notice the suspicious lack of Jinx in the cell he was guarding?

Jinx's heart sank as he sat back in position in front of her cell door, nursing a thermos of his coffee/alcohol blend, which, judging by the current display of lack of any judgment skills, he was far too intoxicated to actually need. _He'll notice in a minute, _Jinx told herself confidently, even as her arms decided that they wouldn't last that long.

Through sheer willpower and a _heck_ of a lot of dumb luck, Jinx managed to hang on until booze-brain's superior walked past. Although the other guard didn't notice his intoxication or the apparent lack of prisoner, the sight of her was enough to snap the guard into attention for long enough to take a look into the cell, this time actually noticing that Jinx was gone. Now, she just had to wait.


	21. Chapter 21

As the door to her cell slid open, Jinx almost fell to the ground with the sheer wave of alcohol odor flowing through the open space. She retched silently, but somehow held on. _That lady must have been as drunk as he is not to notice that smell, _she thought, trying to distract herself from the increasingly desperate pleas from her arms to _just let go already_. The guard checked all the logical places, and all of the places that would _seem _logical to anyone with that much booze in their system, but thankfully didn't look up. Once he had made sure she was really gone to the best of his current ability, the guard ran out to look for her. He shoved the door behind him, and Jinx stared in horror as it started to close. Thankfully, it stayed open just a crack, and Jinx dropped to the ground and ran.

_I will never use these arms again, _she told herself as she used the commotion from her 'escape' to actually escape. Once out, she sat in an alley tucked away into the back of the city, rubbing her arms and trying to regain feeling in the appendages. "_Years _of gymnastics couldn't prepare anyone for that," she grumbled. When the Titans found her, she groaned loudly. "I don't have the energy for this. I swear I hung from that ceiling _forever_. Just take me back to my bed in my cell. Please. And tell them to assign a more competent guard so I don't have any more brilliant ideas. I'd lift my arms for you to put the handcuffs on them, but I don't think I can. So. Also, you'll probably have to carry me," she said. Cyborg sighed and picked her up, walking to the T-Car. Jinx immediately shot a pink electricity bolt at his feet, tripping him. She jumped out of his arms and into the door of the driver's seat, shoved the stolen keys in the ignition, and drove off. "Never trust an injured villain!" She shouted as she passed the group of superheroes.

At dinner that night, the prison listened to Jinx regale them with the tale of her daring escape, leaving out, of course, the parts where she felt like her arms were about to give out, and the fact that her guard was drunk beyond recognition. She also added quite a bit to her 'fight' with the Titans. Not to a suspicious amount, however, as embellishing stories believably was a sort of contest between villains.

"And then I jumped into the car and drove off. I got halfway across the city before Robin caught up on his motorcycle. Would've gotten farther, but it seems Cyborg's a little overprotective of his vehicle. He's got tracking devices on any piece that can separate from the body," she said. That part wasn't an exaggeration. Cyborg had been extremely angry when he caught up, but he would get over it in a few days. The others, once Jinx was safely detained, had laughed their heads off, excluding Raven. Cyborg had left, muttering angrily about electromagnetic car keys that wouldn't detach unless he _wanted _them to. Jinx resolved to apologize once her week in prison was up.

But until then, Jinx had to focus on her escape. The next morning, she discreetly followed behind a young woman emptying the trash from the women's bathroom (which was the only place her new guard wouldn't follow: Jinx now regretted her request for a more competent guard). To her surprise, it was emptied directly into a garbage truck. Thinking quickly, or perhaps not thinking at all, Jinx jumped into the back of the truck, even as it was sliding closed. It was only after the point of no return that she realized she was now trapped in one of the worst-smelling environments she had ever been in, and that she would most likely be sighted by the truck driver when the load was unceremoniously dumped. Jinx huffed a disgruntled breath and settled in as much as possible. There was nothing she could do for the moment.

Jinx woke up to the loud beeping that signaled the back of the truck lifting. She grabbed an old pillow and a huge plastic bin, pulling the first under her and the other on top of her. Closing her eyes tightly, Jinx slid out of the truck and into the trash, and then ran before anyone could find her there. Unfortunately for Jinx, the Teen Titans were not far behind. She sighed. "Can I at least take a shower first?" She whined.

Cyborg simply glared and put the handcuffs on her. "Sorry," he snapped. "No privileges for car thieves."

"Well, that's a little harsh for one little joyride. What? Did I scratch the paint? Leave an imprint in the driver's seat? No, wait, I must have left a crumb in the glove compartment," Jinx commented.

Cyborg slapped her, hard, across the face.

Jinx's mouth dropped open. "What the _fu_-" She reached a hand up to her lip, and let out a shocked laugh when it came away with blood. "Wow. Wow, didn't think you had the guts for _that_." She laughed again and turned to Robin. "I was in a surrender. I wasn't an immediate threat. Don't you people have _rules _for this?!" She turned back to Cyborg. "Have fun with your car. It may be the only one who ever loves you." That was too far, and Jinx knew it, but she was too far gone to care. She let Robin handcuff her and take her back to prison.

By the time Jinx was finished with her punishment for breaking out, and with her shower, which automatically shut off after ten minutes, it was time for bed. She fell asleep angry, sore, and pretty sure she still smelled of sour milk. Suddenly, she didn't really want to apologize to Cyborg. But honestly, she knew it would look suspicious if he was any less angry.


	22. Chapter 22

Jinx awoke on the last day of her detainment, hopefully ever, feeling like a pile of bricks covered in sand. She rolled out of her bed with a loud, continuous groan that didn't stop until she'd hit the floor face-first, her blanket landing on top of her. Another continuous groan escaped from her mouth as she slug-crawled to the bathroom, not bothering to toss the blanket away. When Kitten looked as if she was about to make fun of Jinx's state, the pink-haired witch lifted the blanket off the top of her head, glared, and hissed at her. Kitten merely gave her a wary look and stepped over her on her way to the mirror. Jinx's new guard, a young woman who didn't seem to have any obvious weaknesses except perhaps not caring about her job, rolled her eyes.

When Jinx appeared at breakfast and immediately flopped her head down on the table, Gizmo glanced at her and said "You look like death, and not in a good way." Jinx flipped him off. Billy Numerous pushed a tray her way, repeatedly poking her in the head with it, until Jinx felt compelled to lift her head enough to glare at him. He took the opportunity to shove the tray under her face, preventing her from flopping down onto the table once more. She grudgingly grabbed a fork and stabbed it into her food, only responding to the conversations around her with grunts until all of the food has disappeared into her mouth.

After that, Jinx felt significantly more awake and ready to begin plotting. It was her last day in the prison, not that she would admit that to the people around the table with her, and she wanted to go out with a bang. "I've got a plan," Jinx said, leaning in towards the middle of the table. Her old team leaned in as well. Jinx smiled. You couldn't count on these people for literally anything else, but when you had a cunning plan? They were the best people in the world.

Luckily, Jinx's little performance that morning fed right into her story that she was violently ill with a massively high fever, and needed to be put in the infirmary wing immediately. Of course, since the prison staff were sympathetic-emphasis-on-the-pathetic people, they were a lot easier to fool than the staff of the Hive Academy, who wouldn't let you out of classes unless you were in immediate danger of dying violently enough to disrupt the entire school. In fact, the last time a student had died during class, if was seen as a training opportunity to find and hunt down the assassin that pulled it off. It turned out that it was another student, who was quickly promoted to the top of his class.

In any case, Jinx was soon lifted onto a stretcher and carted into a sterile, white room, where she was hooked up to several machines of questionable purpose. She found that she was not surprised when the nurse decided it was safe to leave her alone, although she was a bit disgusted at whoever had hired all of these incompetents. Within moments, all the machines were programmed to read that Jinx would die in fifteen minutes. She hopped back into the bed and made herself look as sick as possible, and waited for the flatline.

_Easiest. Escape. Ever, _Jinx thought to herself as she was carted into a hearse and driven off the prison property. They had even removed the tracking device that clearly wasn't hooked up to anything if it hadn't been used previously. Her thoughts became a little less excited as she was unceremoniously dumped into a shallow grave and began to have dirt dumped directly onto her, sans coffin. She sat up and glared at the gravedigger. "What are you _doing_?!" She demanded, brushing the soil off the front of her outfit. To her shock and slight disappointment, the gravedigger didn't even flinch.

"Buryin' yah. You're deahd," he answered. Jinx raised an eyebrow.

"Clearly I'm not," she pointed out. The gravedigger ignored her, except to throw another shovelful of dirt into the grave. Jinx squealed and ducked.

"Sorry, miss. I'm undah ordahs nottah let any of 'em up aghain. Naht since 'a last time," he sighed. Jinx looked at him warily, wondering for a moment what had happened "last time", and then stepped out of the hole.

"Honestly, if you don't what to 'let them up again', you might want to consider deeper graves," she said. The gravedigger gave a long-suffering sigh and then swung his shovel at her head. Jinx shrieked and dodged, throwing her arms over her head. "What the heck?!" She yelled.

"Sahrry aghain, miss. I don't mean no harm, but I cantta 'llow the undeahd to roam the streehts once moah'."

Jinx zapped him with her powers, absolutely certain that the 'don't permanently harm civilians or prison staff' rule didn't apply to the clinically insane, especially if they were trying to kill her with heavy, blunt objects. Unfortunately, the pink electricity bolt attracted the attention of the prison vehicle, which had started driving away. "Shoot," Jinx muttered, and then turned and ran.

Jinx returned to the prison held in between two guards, feet not touching the floor. She twisted in their grip. "C'mon, guys, it's my last day here anyway. Can't you just let me stay out? I mean, I totally would've gotten away if the gravedigger guy wasn't completely nuts," she wheedled. The guards ignored her, instead continuing silently down the hallway. "Can you at least get that branch out of my hair? You know, the one that got stuck there when you tripped me and sent me tumbling down a hill? Using a _completely unnecessary _police dog unit, I might add? Has anyone testing those things for rabies recently?" She asked. The guards stayed silent under her verbal assault. Jinx half-heartedly renewed her struggles, at least until she heard the sobbing coming from the infirmary.


	23. Chapter 23

Jinx craned her neck to get a view into the infirmary room. "_Cyborg_?!" She gasped.

"_Jinx_?!" He gasped back, quickly wiping his eyes and pretending he hadn't been dramatically sobbing a moment before.

"Beast Boy!" Beast Boy shouted. Raven cuffed him on the back of the head.

"You're _alive_?!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"They didn't notify you and tell you I was _alive_?!" Jinx exclaimed.

"Rae, that hurt!" Beast Boy exclaimed. Raven cuffed him again.

"This was a _fake_?!" Cyborg said.

"Of _course _this was a fake!" Jinx said.

"Stop _hitting_ me, Rae, it- mmph!" Beast Boy said. Jinx glanced at him long enough to witness a black band materializing around his mouth, as well as to see Raven to cuff him once more.

While Jinx was distracted, Cyborg wrapped her in a huge hug. "I'm so sorry," he mumbled.

Jinx relaxed in his arms. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stolen your car. I know how important it is to you," she told him. Cyborg started chuckling. Jinx squinted. "What?" She asked. He just laughed louder. Jinx pulled back to look at him. "What?!" She demanded. Cyborg just looked at her with a huge grin and pulled her in for a kiss before responding.

"I crashed it," he told her.

Jinx blinked. "What?" She asked again.

"I crashed it. The prison told us you died, and I was out of there so fast that I ran into a tree on the way here. It wouldn't start back up, so I ran the rest of the way," he said.

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe you," she said.

Beast Boy interjected, apparently winning the struggle to get the band away from his mouth. "It's true. He was going so fast that the rest of us couldn't even get in the car. Rae and I had to rescue Rob and Star from the traffic from the accident before we came," he said.

Jinx looked back at Cyborg, a smirk on her face. "Why does it feel so good to know I'm more important to you than an inanimate object?" She asked.

Cyborg looked offended. "I'll have you know, the T-Car is no mere inanimate object. It is the pinnacle of modern engineering, the combination of the most top-of-the-line parts and the best stylistic choices, coming together to form the _best car on the __planet__ and __yes__ that __includes__ the Batmobile so don't even __bring it __**up**__, Robin_," Cyborg ranted.

"You mean it _was_," Jinx corrected.

Cyborg slumped. "Yeah. Yeah, it was. Can we go home now?"

"I don't know. How are we getting there? I seem to remember that we're short a car," Jinx teased. Cyborg glared at her. Jinx sighed. "You know, it's not like we know for sure it's totaled. We should probably go back to the scene of the accident and make sure they don't tow it off to some unknown destination," she told him. Cyborg's eyes widened, and he bolted out of the room. Jinx sighed again and turned around to the other people in the room. "Can I hitch a ride?" She asked.

"Are you _kidding _me?! The front _bumper _is worth more than that!" Cyborg yelled. Jinx dropped gracefully from the sky where Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire were hovering, and walked directly up to the official-looking guy offering to pay to have the T-Car scrapped for parts. For some reason, he looked familiar to Jinx. She watched them argue for a few more seconds before it clicked.

Jinx walked confidently up to them, looked the man in the eye, and said "Whatever you're offering, we both know it's not a fair price. And I also know that if we turn it down, you're just going to have your tow truck buddy over there steal it anyway. You may be able to pull this on civilians, moron, and maybe even on gullible, naïve superheroes, but sorry, I'm no hero. Hand over the keys," she said. Cyborg gaped at her, and the other guy turned and ran. Cyborg started to chase after him, but Jinx stopped him with a hand on his arm. He turned to her.

"He's got the keys!" He exclaimed.

"Does he?" She asked, holding up the object in question. Cyborg grinned and wrapped her in a hug.

"How'd you get them?" He asked.

"You seem to have forgotten, this _is_ about the fifth time I've stolen your keys," Jinx remarked.

Cyborg began counting on his fingers. "Uh, fifth?" He asked.

"Oh, did I say fifth? Clearly I meant… Uh… How many do you know about?"

Cyborg stared at her incredulously. Jinx shrugged noncommittally and turned around to watch Starfire hit the fleeing tow truck with a starbolt, while Raven popped up in front of the other guy in all her dark, creepy glory. The situation handled, Jinx spared a thought for her old team, still locked in the prison. _Well, they deserve to be there, _Jinx thought to herself. _But by that logic, so do I, _the other part of her brain decided. _Yeah, well, I chose to be good, _the first voice countered. _Yeah, but what if they decide to be good?_ Her doubts persisted. _Well, then, they can deal with that and find their own way out. I'm not responsible for them, _she told herself. _So? They used to be my friends, and I abandoned and betrayed them,_ the second voice continued. _They did that to me! _The first voice shrieked. _They thought I was dead! _The second one yelled. Jinx shook her head violently to dispel the argument in her mind, and then was suddenly wrapped in a bone-crushing hug that could only come from one person.

"I was so glad to find that you were not dead, friend Jinx!"

"Star. Ribcage. Breaking. Will be dead soon if you don't let go."

"I am sorry! Should I make the pudding of apology?"

"Not allowed to make me food, Star."

"Of course! I had forgotten!"

"Kinda still being strangled here, Star."


	24. Chapter 24

Once Jinx was released from Starfire's stranglehold and the car thieves apprehended, Jinx found a napkin and a pen and wrote a note to the Hive, which she stuck to the back of the tow truck driver as he was being shoved into the police vehicle. She told them the truth, knowing that Gizmo, at least, would understand, after he'd finished being angry. The rest of them, however, would probably never forgive her, and she was okay with that. It would make life easier for them if they blamed her.

"So what now?" Jinx asked Cyborg. He shrugged.

"You're completely clear of all crimes now, so you're free to do whatever you want," he told her. She pouted.

"Yeah, but what do I want? I've never really been free before. I don't know what free people do. They apparently buy things instead of stealing them, but how do I buy things? I don't even have money. How do you get money? I need a job, right? How do I even do that? I mean-"

Cyborg cut off her rant with a gentle kiss, and she relented. "Let's just go home for now, okay? We'll figure it out _after _we get some time to relax."

And that was exactly what they did. Jinx stayed at the Tower when the Titans went out on missions, getting increasingly bored. Having down time was great, but when she was forced to lay back on a couch playing with a bouncy ball until her boyfriend and his team appeared, bone-tired and covered in supervillain goop, Jinx knew there was a line. Of course, there were a lot fewer calls with the lack of repeat villains, but there were a lot of yahoos in the world willing to take their places. Jinx remained in her bored state for a week, until Batman called the Tower to talk to Robin. Jinx paid very little attention, as it was simply a social call, until the conversation turned to prisons.

"Since Jinx's upgrades, our villain retention rate is up to 75%!" Robin informed his mentor excitedly.

"That's not great," Batman replied. Robin frowned, then pulled out a piece of paper from a stack in front of him, tapping one line.

"Arkham's villain retention rate is only thirty-seven."

"All of that's the Joker blowing the whole place up every time he escapes!"

"Ours includes three mass escapes instigated by Jinx herself to test the system!"

Batman sighed condescendingly. "Look, Robin, you're doing well down there, but there's no way anything made by your little pet supervillain can compare to Arkham," he said in a tone of apology. Jinx glared at the image of the senior superhero on the screen incredulously.

"Speaking of pet supervillains, how's Catwoman doing?" Jinx snapped. She was ignored by both arguing parties.

"So, what? You don't think Jump could hold, say, the Joker?" Robin asked.

"Jump couldn't hold the Joker's goldfish."

"Well, then you won't have a problem making a little bet?" Robin shuffled the papers again as he spoke, pulling another one out. "Let's see here. The longest the Joker has ever been stuck in Arkham is… Six days, two hours, fifteen minutes. I'll bet we could keep him for a week, at least."

Batman looked thoughtful, or as much as he could behind his mask, for a moment. "Alright, what are the stakes?" He said. Robin grinned evilly.

"If you win, I go up in front of the entire Justice League and say that Arkham is the better prison. If we win, you throw a party for the entire extended Titans network and announce that Jump is the better prison. _And _you have to let our 'little pet supervillain' redesign your prison," Robin said, too caught up in smirking triumphantly to ask how the 'little pet supervillain' felt about this. Luckily for him, Jinx loved the idea.

"Deal," Batman agreed, then dramatically severed the connection before saying goodbye. Robin turned quickly, cape flying behind him, to face Jinx.

"I think you have some prison plans to draw up," he said in a voice deeper than normal, then threw down a smoke bomb and disappeared. Jinx glanced to Raven for an explanation. Raven rolled her eyes.

"He didn't get to disconnect, so he has to get in a dramatic exit so he doesn't feel like he lost," she informed Jinx. Jinx rolled her eyes and changed the subject.

"Hey, have you ever heard of the Bechdel test?" She asked.

"The one where there have to be at least two female characters, and they have to talk to each other about something other than a man?" Raven replied, looking up from her book.

"Yeah, that's the one. Did you know that only, like, half of the movies that come out pass it? Why is that? It's not like there's a shortage of actresses," Jinx complained.

"I don't think it's that there aren't enough female characters as much as it is that the characters that do appear aren't well-written enough," Raven explained. "Even some things written by women don't pass the test, no matter how many female characters are in it. If, say, half of the main characters of something are female, if all they talk about is boys, then it fails."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, if it's a romance story, it'd probably be easy to forget to write in interactions between characters who aren't involved in the main plot, you know? Especially in something that's really short or has short chapters, like fanfiction or something. Or even something like comics, where there isn't a lot of room for dialogue," Jinx said. Raven nodded.

"That shouldn't really be an excuse for sexism, though," she said.

"Well, even something that passes the test could be sexist," Jinx argued. Raven nodded again.

"It's not really the best test for sexism, I suppose, but it's the easiest one to measure," she explained.

"I bet there are days when my life doesn't even pass the test," Jinx said.


	25. Chapter 25

Since the whole 'escaping to test the system' thing, Jinx had decided the only way to make the prison actually function properly was to fire the entire staff and start over. She had interviewed, hired, and even helped train the new staff herself, so she was completely confident in their abilities. She had also overseen the rebuilding of the walls, and the fixing of the vents, and pretty much everything else, so she was sure everything would work properly. She was entirely certain that her prison was the best on the face of the planet.

But that didn't stop her from being gut-wrenchingly nervous.

Apparently, the Joker himself had heard of the little bet, and had taken it as an opportunity to test his skills, because he had let himself be caught and transferred to Jump City with (nearly) no resistance. Jinx watched the transfer herself, not allowing the Titans to accompany her. Only her years of training as a professional liar kept her from betraying her nerves. The professional supervillain seemed as interested in her as she was in him, letting off a few insults about side-switching to see how she'd react. Jinx simply stood up taller and crossed her arms, making her small, thin frame as intimidating as possible, and smiled her best supervillain grin, the one that showed off her still-sharpened teeth. His eyes narrowed slightly, but no more words were exchanged.

Once the transfer was complete, Jinx returned to the Tower. She had to trust her staff and her upgrades to be enough.

"I'm back," she called.

"Just in time, we've got access to the security cams," Cyborg replied from the couch. "Not allowed to do anything, but at least we can watch."

Jinx slid in next to him with a sigh, glancing at the screen. The Joker was being placed in his new cell, trying to intimidate the guard with his signature creepy smile. The guard, for her part, was not unsettled in the slightest as she chained him up and closed the door to the maximum security wing. Cyborg switched the view to one of the cameras in the cell. The Joker immediately began to wriggle in his bonds, pulling out of the standard-issue straightjacket with ease. Jinx let out a curse, she had _known _she should have bought the extra-strength ones from the private company, but it just hadn't been in the budget. The Joker's feral grin grew even wider, and he let out a bone-chilling laugh. He then began to search his prisoner's jumpsuit for something. Jinx bit her lip as he pulled out what looked like the keycards the guards wore.

"Here we are. So easy it's almost criminal," he cackled, and then inserted the card into a slot in the wall.

"You have inserted a decoy keycard. Please insert an official Jump City Prison keycard to continue," a mechanical voice announced. "If this is not possible, type in your eighteen-digit security code."

The Joker raised his eyebrows. "Clever little girl," he said, shaking his head and moving to the keypad. He considered it for a while, and then began to type.

"Incorrect code. Please remain where you are until the head of staff determines whether this is a mistake," the mechanical voice said, the keypad folding back into the wall. The Joker's mouth opened in surprise. "Request denied," the voice chirped after a moment. "Administering punishment number 1A: Withholding of window privileges." A metal barrier descended over the room's one window. The Joker growled, and then inserted the decoy card into the slot once more.

"You have inserted a decoy keycard. Please insert an official Jump City Prison keycard to continue. If this is not possible, type in your eighteen-digit security code," the voice repeated. The keypad unfolded again, and the Joker angrily punched in another number series.

"Incorrect code. Please remain where you are until the head of staff determines whether this is a mistake," the voice said, this time almost immediately followed by "Request denied. Administering punishment number 2A: withholding of running water privileges." The sink in the corner of the room sunk into the floor, to be replaced by a bucket of water. The Joker continued to type in random codes, seemingly uncaring of the punishments being administered.

At around punishment number 10A, the keypad dinged and said "Correct code." The Joker whooped, and Cyborg turned to Jinx with an expression of horror. Jinx grabbed a piece of Beast Boy's butter-free popcorn and tossed it into her mouth, unconcerned. The reason was revealed in a moment when the keypad voice continued speaking. "Please standby for scan," it chirped. A white net of light filled the cell for a moment, then dissipated, and the voice said "Identity detected: Prisoner number 178A, common name: Joker. Access denied." Jinx began to smile, her nerves calmed as the Joker began throwing a tantrum. _We can totally make it a week, _she decided, relaxing into the couch and taking another handful of popcorn.

On Tuesday, the Joker made a break for freedom when the guards took him for his required exercise, and he was detained and back in his cell in less than three minutes.

On Wednesday, he decided to be good for long enough to regain his window privileges, only to find that the power-proof glass Jinx had bought was also Joker-proof.

On Thursday, he tried to cajole others into assisting his escape. The other prisoners turned him down on the grounds that the prison was the nicest place some of them had ever lived.

On Friday, he tried and failed to sneak in to the confiscated items room. (Even if he'd managed it, the dangerous objects had already been shipped to an off-site holding facility).

On Saturday, he captured a hostage in the cafeteria. The guards had him unconscious before he could make the first threat.

On Sunday, he tried to both bribe and threaten the guards, who refused to even engage him in conversation.

On Monday, he gave up.


	26. Chapter 26

"So, how'd he get out?" Batman asked the instant he picked up Robin's call. "Where is he? Does your team need backup fixing the damage he caused? Because the Justice League is always happy to assist the junior superheroes, and it would be the perfect opportunity for you to tell them that I was right."

No one on the other end of the line spoke.

"So how long did it take? Two days? Three? How many other prisoners got out? How much will you have to rebuild?" Batman continued, then stopped, seeming to notice that the group's faces seemed more smug than humiliated.

"What? No, that's impossible. He can't still be- He's not. Right?"

Robin quirked an eyebrow. "Better get out your best batsuit, because you're throwing an all-expense-paid party for a bunch of 'junior superheroes' who beat you in a bet," he announced. The Titans began to cheer and applaud.

"Proof or it didn't happen," Batman interrupted.

"We've already sent you the security footage," Jinx told him.

"I'll call you back," he said. Robin dived for the disconnect button, just barely hitting it before Batman.

"HA!" Robin yelled. The rest of the room rolled their eyes.

An hour later, Batman called back looking even more sulky than usual. "Alright. You win. We'll have your party three weeks from now," he growled.

"And the other part of the bet?" Jinx mentioned. Batman seemed to deflate, as if he hoped that no one would remember that.

"I suppose that I could… Give you a tour of Arkham. Tomorrow," he decided.

"I'm going to need more than that. Floor plans? Escape records? Staff files?" Jinx listed.

"You'll get everything you need," Batman assured her. "If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to Robin alone."

Jinx frowned, but obligingly walked out of the room. She wasn't quick enough, and over her shoulder she heard Batman say "We can't trust her."

Jinx sighed. Cyborg gave her a sympathetic look, and she mouthed 'it's fine'. Jinx knew that there would still be people who were wary of her past, no matter how much she did to help the world. Even as a villain, there were people who had doubted Jinx, and she knew from experience that the only way to deal with those people was to prove them wrong. Assuming that Robin didn't back off from his decision to let Jinx redesign Arkham in the face of his mentor's wrath, she resolved to make it absolutely perfect, without a single flaw that anyone could blame on her.

Jinx went back to her room in the Tower and picked up the plans she had begun while the bet was ongoing. She began scribbling furiously, using the information about Arkham that could be found online, despite the fact that she would have to change everything again later when the building was inevitably nothing like the pictures. Hours passed uninterrupted except when Cyborg brought her dinner, and eventually Jinx fell asleep in the window seat, surrounded by her plans.

The next day Jinx arrived at Arkham armed with a clipboard, highlighters, and a color-coded binder full of everything she needed to draw a schematic of the entire facility, plus her notes from the Jump City Prison remodel. She was greeted by a chipper woman who introduced herself as Doctor Daisy, and a much less chipper Batman.

"I'm here to show you around, and to give you an overview of the facility," Doctor Daisy chirped.

"And he's here to lurk in the shadows and glare at me?" Jinx observed dryly, nodding to Batman. Batman's eyes narrowed.

"No, silly, he's here to make sure we're safe from the inmates!" Doctor Daisy giggled.

"We need a private superhero to accompany us so we're safe from the people who are supposedly incapacitated?" Jinx asked, with a raised eyebrow. Batman further intensified his glare. Doctor Daisy didn't seem to notice.

"Come on in," she trilled. Jinx followed her through the doors.

"Wow. Uh. Does the whole place look like this?" Jinx asked, surveying the Gothic architecture and decorations. In Jinx's opinion, the overall theme of 'Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here' may have been one of the main reasons inmates wanted out.

"Yup!" Doctor Daisy twittered. "We love our gargoyles here, don't we? We do!"

_The theme and the company, _Jinx decided with a grimace, writing "NO GARGOYLES" across her plans in all caps. The tour continued, and for the most part Jinx ignored Doctor Daisy's narration in favor of measuring walls and marking them down in her notes. Batman continued to hang back by a few steps, still glaring. Jinx refused to let it creep her out.

"And this is where we do our therapy," Doctor Daisy squealed. Jinx raised an eyebrow, looking around at the childish interior, completely at odds with the rest of the building. A prisoner in a straightjacket sat on the floor, muttering quietly, as a nurse read to him from a picture book. Another was making macaroni art, looking bitter and humiliated.

"Do you have anything more age appropriate?" Jinx asked.

"Don't worry, sweetie, everything here is perfectly safe for all ages," Doctor Daisy squeaked, patting Jinx's head and beginning to lead her out of the room.

"Wait, what's back there?" Jinx interrupted, pointing to a nondescript door in the back of the room.

"Nothing important," Doctor Daisy said, her voice losing its happy tone for a moment. Jinx balked, and then immediately went up to the door, ignoring Doctor Daisy's repeated assurances that it was nothing she needed to see. She threw the door open, and her mouth dropped open in horror.

"Oh my god," she whispered hoarsely, hardly daring to believe her eyes. Jinx turned to Batman, who looked as shocked as she felt. "Oh my god," she repeated, and then bolted to the nearest trash can. As she threw up, Doctor Daisy moved to the door.

"I told you it was nothing you needed to see," she growled, slamming it shut.


	27. Chapter 27

"Cyborg, can you ask Raven to come get me?" Jinx whispered into her communicator. After she'd emptied the contents of her stomach, Jinx had run off and crammed herself into one of the dark, hidden corners all over the building. The tiny piece of her mind that hadn't shut down in shock registered that she would have to fix that in the renovation plans.

"What? Why? I thought you had another hour to tour the facility," Cyborg said, sounding baffled.

"Yeah, I did. I do. Um. But I can't… I can't stay here right now," Jinx said, chewing her lip, ignoring the blood welling up from the wounds she created.

"I… Yeah, alright, I'll let her know," he told her, still sounding confused, but thankfully not asking any more questions.

"Thanks," Jinx breathed as the connection was severed. She hugged her knees, unable to stop shaking.

A dark shadow appeared in front of her, and Jinx shrieked and pressed herself in closer to the wall. An instant passed before she recognized Batman.

"What do you want?" Jinx snarled, trying to sound threatening, but it mostly just sounding numb and pathetic. Batman opened his mouth to speak and closed it again.

"So this is the great Arkham's secret, huh? The world's most fantastic prison by virtue of… of human experimentation? Good god, no wonder the Joker's crazy," Jinx laughed brokenly.

"I didn't know," Batman told her.

"I bet you didn't," Jinx said. "Bet you didn't notice the way the guards were eyeing the prettiest prisoners, either. Or all the bruises on everyone but the real crazies. I know a little bit about prisons, and let me tell you, the only way to survive in one like this is to be too scary to touch. And even then, if you're _too_ scary, you get dragged off with a needle in your neck!" Jinx gestured wildly with one hand, and then curled even further in on herself, tucking her head in between her knees.

"I had a friend at Hive Academy once. She was older than me, too old for the juvenile prison. So when she got caught, she was shipped straight to Gotham City," Jinx continued, heartbreak in her voice. "We were informed two weeks later that she was killed attempting to escape. Now I'll spend the rest of my life wondering if that was true, or if… if…" Her last words choked off into an angry sob. Jinx took a steadying breath, then stood up on shaky legs. "Take it as a testament to my reform that I haven't blasted this place to the ground," she snapped at Batman, and then walked away, not bothering to pick up the supplies she had dropped.

She met Raven outside and took her arm. In moments, they were back in the tower. Jinx walked straight up to Cyborg and into his arms. She pulled away after a few moments. "Whatever they did that's got you so upset, I'm sending a strongly-worded email," Cyborg said.

"They experiment on their prisoners," Jinx informed him.

"Forget the email. Give me one good reason I shouldn't blow the whole place to smithereens," he growled. The corner of Jinx's mouth turned up slightly in a small, but genuine, smile.

"Because I still have to fix it?" She suggested.

"No, you don't," Cyborg said. Jinx rolled her eyes. "I'm serious. You don't have fix anything for them, okay? You don't even have to go back to that place ever again if you don't want to," he told her. Jinx sighed.

"Yes, I do. If I don't do something, they're going to keep hurting more people. I can't let that happen if I can avoid it," she said, her tone final.

Cyborg smirked. "You know what you sound like?"

"What?"

"A hero."

"Shut up."

"No, really," Cyborg insisted. "You've got the whole 'sacrificing your own feelings for the greater good' thing down already."

"Shut up," Jinx said again, though this time with a smile. Cyborg grinned at the sight of it and leaned down for a kiss. They were interrupted by a call coming through on the common room screen.

"It's Batman," Cyborg yelled. Robin ran in and vaulted over the back of the couch to accept the call.

"What do you need?" Robin asked. He always failed to disguise his eager hope that eventually Batman would call on them for help.

"I need to apologize," Batman sighed. Robin's eyebrows ascended into his hairline.

"Jinx, it's for you," Robin announced. Jinx moved up to the screen and waited.

"The way Arkham has been treating its prisoners is unacceptable," Batman began. "And I wanted to let you know that I've spoken to someone named Bruce Wayne, who has a lot of sway with the prison systems. He informed me that Doctor Daisy and everyone else involved were fired and blacklisted from any medical institutions."

"In the five minutes since I left you've managed to correspond with someone notorious for being the busiest man in Gotham?" Jinx asked. Batman ignored her.

"He also has given you full authority over any prison renovations necessary."

"If you're such good friends with Bruce Wayne, why haven't I seen you together online?"

"I apologize that I allowed this to happen for as long as it has-"

"Come to think of it, he does seem to disappear from a lot of social functions."

"And I assure you it will not happen again."

"Wait, doesn't Bruce Wayne have an adopted kid around Robin's age? Richard something?"

"Goodbye." Batman hung up.

"The way I see it, one of two things is happening here," Jinx announced. "Either Bruce Wayne is secretly Batman-"

"What? No, that's ridiculous," Robin spluttered, looking panicked.

"Or, Batman and Bruce Wayne are secretly in a relationship and trying to hide it from the public." Cyborg gave Jinx a look at this suggestion. _Just go with it, _she pleaded silently.

"…Uh… Yeah," Robin said. "But, it's a secret, so…"

"Don't worry, it's safe with me," Jinx assured him.


	28. Chapter 28

Three weeks passed quickly from there while Jinx was busy dealing with the absolute mess that was Arkham. Before she knew it, it was time for the victory party Batman had promised them. Since Batman, and thus Bruce Wayne, was in charge of the planning, it was more of a prom (including a fancy location) than a party that actual teenagers would have set up, but there was free food and a chance to gloat over adults, so not many complained.

An hour into the evening, Batman took the stage and cleared his throat. "As some of you are aware, this party is the result of a bet I lost to the Teen Titans," he began. Jinx held up her drink and cheered, and the rest of the room joined in.

"The bet was that the Jump City prison could keep the Joker incarcerated for a longer continuous time than he has been at Gotham. The reason for this is the renovation of this prison, spearheaded by a former prisoner. Some of you may know Jinx-"

He was interrupted by more cheering. He waited until it died down to continue.

"Because of her update, Jump City prison has become the most efficient prison in the area, perhaps even the world. In fact, it is even better than Arkham Asylum, the pride and… Well, not joy, but definitely the pride of Gotham City. I just want to say that if even half of the villains you Titans are fighting are as intelligent and determined as Jinx, then I've been seriously underestimating all of you."

The cheering this time was even louder. Batman let it go on a while longer before he spoke.

"But enough about business things. This is a party, go have a good time!" With this, Batman stepped off the stage.

"Dance with me," Jinx demanded, tugging on Cyborg's metal arm and grinning. Cyborg looked down at his plate, piled high with uneaten food, and then back at his girlfriend. He sighed, but stood up and took her arm with a matching smile. Beast Boy gave it a full twelve seconds before reaching for his friend's plate. Cyborg caught him with a glare over his shoulder.

They danced for a while to cheesy pop songs, and were joined on the dance floor by nearly everyone. Jinx even saw Raven and Beast Boy dancing out of the corner of her eye, and she spared a moment to wonder who had dragged who onto it, until she spotted Beast Boy twirling a little blonde girl and Raven with a toddler on each arm, one of whom was trying to eat her hair. Raven didn't seem to mind.

Some of the only people not dancing were the entire Titans East. This seemed odd to Jinx, especially because Aqualad seemed to be throwing longing glances at the dance floor. The music had shifted into a slow song, and the people left on the floor had mostly paired off into couples, but why couldn't he just ask Bumblebee to dance? Jinx got her answer when another of Aqualad's wistful looks was aimed not at the floor, or at Bee, but at Speedy. And Speedy even seemed to be glancing back!

"I've got an idea," Jinx said suddenly as a new song started. She took Cyborg's hand and dragged him over to the table that the main Titans had taken over. Beast Boy and Raven had retired there when the songs slowed.

"I need a favor," she declared. "I need you to go dance with him." She was pointing at Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"What? Why?" They asked simultaneously. Jinx rolled her eyes.

"Because you," she said, pointing to Cyborg, "are incapable of saying no to me, and because you," she continued, pointing at Beast Boy, "need someone to keep that… thing… secret."

"But… It's a slow song," Beast Boy spluttered.

"For the love of… I'm not asking you to make out with him, I'm sure your heterosexuality can take one little dance," Jinx said, eyes flashing. Then she softened her voice. "Please, it's for a good cause," she pleaded, throwing a meaningful look at the miserable Titans East. Neither of the boys got it, but Raven sighed and shoved Beast Boy out of his chair.

"Go," she demanded. Confused, they did.

There were some snickers as the odd couple started dancing together, but they died out quickly. Jinx grinned triumphantly and held out her hand to the other occupant of the table.

"Dance with me, Raven," she said. Raven rolled her eyes but took her hand. They danced out the end of the song together, and when the music changed, they went to go split up Starfire and Robin, who hadn't parted since the dancing began.

"I'm cutting in," Jinx announced, taking Starfire's hand. She giggled. "Go dance with Cyborg," she told Robin.  
>"What? Why?" He asked.<p>

"Just do it. Please?" Jinx pleaded. Looking back at the Titans East's table, she noticed Aqualad watching them curiously. Robin followed her gaze.

"Oh, okay," he said. As oblivious as he sometimes was, Robin _was_ raised by the 'world's greatest detective'. There was no telling when he would suddenly become observant. He walked off while Jinx explained the situation to Starfire.

As Jinx had hoped, she had started a trend: Scattered around the dance floor were couples of every possible gender combination. Aqualad had noticed as well. Jinx watched as he stood up, wiped his palms nervously on the pants of his suit, and held out his hand to Speedy. Speedy looked apprehensive, but let Aqualad pull him out of his seat and onto the dance floor. Jinx pumped her fist in triumph.

While she was distracted, someone tapped on her shoulder. "Excuse me, Jinx," Kole said politely, "Would you allow me the honor of this dance?"

"How could I say no to someone with such great taste in hair colors?" Jinx replied, grinning. Her mission accomplished, she didn't need to do anything but enjoy the party.


	29. Chapter 29

It had taken nearly a year to fix everything wrong with Gotham's prison system, but here they were: The opening day of the new and improved Arkham Asylum. Jinx had completely overhauled the entire staff, and was in the process of bringing criminal charges against those responsible for torturing the inmates.

She had also set up dozens of new rehabilitation programs, and protocol allowing the youngest inmates of Arkham to be transferred quickly and safely to Jump City, and for villains like Mad Mod and Brother Blood to be sent to Arkham instead of being kept with the children.

Batman and Jinx had agreed it was safest if Jump City held onto the Joker. He was getting desperate to get out, and would almost surely try to use the move back to Gotham to escape.

Jump City prison was continuing to operate with a perfect no-escape record, and a recent survey of the inmates showed that most of them didn't even want to escape anymore. The exact words used were "It isn't worth trying to get out anymore. The food here's better than at Hive Academy anyway," but Jinx was counting it as a win, at least for her nutrition programs. She could only hope for the same success in Gotham, a city where she couldn't come back and deal with it every single time there was a minor problem.

Off the books, Jinx had gotten to shake hands with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. She had nearly passed out with the effort of looking like she wasn't excited to meet her former idols of villainy. Jinx even offered them a job after they had each served their multiple life sentences. (Luckily, Arkham Asylum had many opportunities for inmates to use their individual skills for the betterment of everyone. Jinx couldn't stand lost potential.)

Jinx reflected on the past year as the opening ceremony speeches dragged on. That isn't to say that having both Batman and Bruce Wayne as speakers wasn't completely amusing, but Jinx couldn't focus on anything but Cyborg's metal hand in hers, Robin trying to look stoic but supportive and ending up somewhere near 'proud parent', Beast Boy slowly getting less and less excited until he fell asleep in his chair, Starfire nearly bursting out of hers in a sustained state of excitement that had lasted three days before the ceremony, and Raven giving Jinx a small smile and a nod when she looked over.

Somehow, one little act against villainy had led her to this: Sweet kisses with Cyborg whenever she wanted them, trading sarcastic quips with Raven as fast as a game of professional ping-pong, talking fashion and boys with Starfire until they collapsed into a giggling mess on each other's beds, playing pranks both with and on Beast Boy indiscriminately, and Robin ruffling her hair when she did anything particularly un-villainous (Jinx ducked away and complained, of course, but every time it happened the warm glow in her chest convinced her that she'd made the right choice).

There was nowhere she'd rather be, Jinx decided, than right here, surrounded by the people she loved. _Well, okay, maybe not here, _Jinx amended, glaring up at the perpetually gray and overcast Gotham sky. _But the sentiment is there. _Once upon a time, Jinx would have berated herself mercilessly for even applying words like "sentiment" to her own life. Once upon a time, Jinx thought that caring about anything but herself was a disadvantage.

But once upon a time, Jinx took a hit for a little girl in the middle of a battlefield while she was fighting against the very people around her now.

Once upon a time, Jinx had a team. Now she had a family.

And now Jinx knew that a family was all she'd ever wanted.

Because of Jinx's work, there wasn't much for a team of superheroes to do in Jump City anymore. Robin was thinking of making the Teen Titans global, starting with Tokyo. Jinx thought it was a great idea, even if she knew that he only planned on Tokyo first because he wanted to reenact his and Starfire's first real kiss.

The Titans split off into teams of two to canvas the rest of the globe. Beast Boy and Raven took off to a part of Africa where Beast Boy could speak the language, which left Jinx and Cyborg going to France. It had been a very long time since Jinx was in a French class at Hive Academy, but she was looking forward to the challenge, even if most of what she could say boiled down to "surrender", "give me the money", and the names of food. Her only comfort was that Cyborg was even worse at it than she was. While they were practicing, he spent ten minutes trying to find "Hi, how are you?" word-by-word in the French-to-English dictionary. Jinx made an extremely valiant effort of not laughing at him, but eventually the giggles won out. (She just taught him how to say "Je parle très mal français" and "répétez, s'il vous plait" and called it good.)

Jinx never officially joined the Teen Titans as more than an auxiliary member. She was terrified of the possibility that she might have to fight one of her friends, and she was far too busy anyway. On her trip to France, she got no less than three offers from people who wanted her to fix their prisons, and when she and Cyborg got back to Titans Tower, there were dozens of messages asking for the same thing. After she had sat down on the floor in shock for a while, she went on with answering all of them. She set a modest stipend for herself, and soon she had made more money honestly than she ever had stealing. She used that money to become the biggest funder of the new global Titans headquarters, because she "had to beat out Bruce Wayne Cyborg you don't understand it's a matter of _pride_".


End file.
